Paige: “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”

WELLINGTON — Three corrupt Palm Beach County commissioners have gone to prison in the last three years, but the head of the public integrity unit in the Palm Beach County state attorney’s office said Wednesday night the public shouldn’t dwell too much on the past and should trust current commissioners to approve needed ethics reforms.

Assistant State Attorney Alan Johnson didn’t have an entirely sunny outlook. When asked by an audience member if he expected any future prosecutions of public officials, he gave a “general answer” of “I hope not, but I know yes.”

Johnson this morning said the answer referred to all public employees and his office is not currently investigating any commissioners.

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BOCA RATON — The keynote speaker couldn’t make it because she was sent to federal prison on a corruption charge, but the ethics seminar went on anyways today at Florida Atlantic University.

Mary McCarty

With disgraced former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty unable to appear, a panel of lawyers advised about 50 local government officials on the federal honest services fraud law that has sent McCarty and four other elected officials from Palm Beach County to prison in the last three years.

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