At the January 13, 2021 meeting of the City Commission, the Commission referred to the Neighborhood and Quality of Life Committee a recommendation of the Hispanic Affairs Committee that all staff and board members be provided ethics training by the Miami- Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. Commissioner Samuelian sponsored the referral.


Background

I.                     City employees
The City of Miami Beach (“City”) developed a Citywide training plan in 2011 to ensure employee access to beneficial information to complete their daily job requirements effectively and professionally. Required courses were identified and developed by Dr. Leslie Rosenfeld for placement in the City’s Adobe eLearning platform beginning in 2012 for all full-time, part-time, seasonal, contract, and temporary workers who are employed at the City of Miami Beach.

The following courses were mandatory for all employees between January 2012 and April 2020, through the Office of Organizational Development Performance Initiatives. Annual refreshers are based on the following schedule:

1. Diversity – every 3 years;
2. Ethics Regulatory – only once;
3. Ethics – every 2 years;
4. Orientation – only once;
5. Sexual Harassment – every 2 years;
6. Teambuilding – every 4 years; and
7. Supervisory Essentials Series (for supervisors only) – only once.

The City entered into an agreement in 2013 with the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust to provide nine (9) workshops over a period of nine (9) months for 230 employees in regulatory departments at a cost of $5,000 per workshop. The workshops were recorded and placed on the eLearning platform as a required course for all employees at the end of 2013.

The Regulatory Ethics sessions provided through the eLearning platform provided approximately 5 hours of information and training on:

• Introduction to Ethics- Interactive lecture and discussion led by staff from the Commission on Ethics on public service ethics, governmental organizational culture, and professionalism.
• Code of Ethics – detailed presentation on the code of ethics requirements for public employees emphasizing issues such as gifts, conflict of interest, and exploitation provisions particularly relevant to employees.
• Legal and administrative consequences of illegal and unethical activity by public servants, including the participation of former public employees whose conduct led to termination.
• Laws that govern bribery, including a discussion of illustrative criminal cases from Miami-Dade County and elsewhere.
• Special integrity challenges presented to regulatory environment staff in the City of Miami Beach, including presentations by a retired management level employee of a local government municipality.
• Interactive group discussion led by staff from the Commission on Ethics on six hypothetical scenarios directly relevant to issues confronting regulatory personnel
• Supervisory staff will participate in a “train the trainer” program that addresses that need for an on-going strategy necessary for building an ethical organizational culture with oversight controls and in-service ethics training throughout City departments

All City employees and contract workers are required to complete the two following ethics courses:

1. Ethics Regulatory: a 2.5-hour course that employees complete only once. This course is conducted by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust to ensure that all representatives of Miami-Dade County government understand the basis of ethical standards. The County Code requires that each employee undertake ethics training that includes a review of the Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics Ordinance and Florida’s Public Records Law. This training is intended to fulfill that requirement and promote a better understanding of the importance of ethics in public service.

2. CMB Mandatory Ethics: a half-hour course that is required to be completed every two years by all City employees as well as seasonal and contract workers and is based on the enclosed Citywide Training Plan.
Upon completing the ethics course, employees are reminded that:
• Being ethical goes beyond values to personal power.
• Sometimes honoring ethical guidelines is not always easy, as they are often open to interpretation and are ever-changing.
• We follow rules and morals that guide us to make decisions in our everyday lives.
• Employees have personal power and must use this power effectively for ethical behavior.
• The goal is to go beyond the basics and create a vibrant environment in which ethical principles and conduct are enthusiastically embraced.
• An ethical workplace will make us stronger personally and professionally, providing for pleasant, meaningful, and successful lives.
• American consumers consider an organization’s ethics and values when obtaining a service.
• Maintaining high levels of ethical standards in the City of Miami Beach is the acceptable and expected standard of behavior as we support our values which communicate to all levels of our organization the manner in which we expect all decisions, interactions and activities to be performed.

• Employees must:
o Serve the public with dignity and respect
o Conduct the business of the City with honesty, integrity, and dedication

• Ethical people are powerful because
o Their word is trusted – what they say is what they do
o Don’t concern themselves with hidden agendas
o Promote trust in their organization
o More resistant to unethical influences
o They are given more responsibility, and
o have higher personal self-esteem

As of May 2020, the use of Adobe Connect, the City’s eLearning portal, was placed on hold because of the budgetary constraints encountered at the start of the pandemic. The agreement is set to be renewed in May of 2021; Human Resources is working with IT to either renew the agreement or consider another platform to house the eLearning training courses.

II.                   City Boards/Committees:
Upon appointment, individual Board/Committee members are provided with written information regarding Government in the Sunshine, Public Records law, conflict of interest policy, attendance requirements, and other pertinent information. A copy of the Important Information for Board and Committee Members Handbook is attached hereto. The handbook contains, amongst other topics:

• The Miami-Dade County Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics Ordinance;
• Highlights of the Miami-Dade County Ethics Code;
• Ethical Issues for Potential Advisory Board Members;
• Sunshine Law and Public Records – Frequently Asked Questions;
• Solicitation of Gifts by City Board/Committee Members memorandums prepared by the City Clerk and the City Attorney.

Upon the appointment of new members to a Board or Committee, or upon the request of a staff liaison, the City Clerk and a representative of the Office of the City Attorney attend City Board and Committee meetings to provide members with refresher courses and answer questions on the Sunshine Law, Public Records Law, Conflict of Interest policy, the Ethics Code, and any other ethics subject matter the liaison or members wish to cover.

On March 21, 2017, the City Clerk retained the services of the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and the Office of the City Attorney to host an Ethics Training Workshop exclusively for City of Miami Beach Board and Committee Members. The training session provided explanations on a variety of topics related to the Sunshine Law, Code of Ethics, and Public Records. The Workshop, which runs approximately one hour and fifteen minutes, is available online at: https://www.miamibeachfl.gov/city-hall/city-clerk/boards-and-committees/board-and-committees-ethics-training-workshop-video-2/