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LTC 187-2017 Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust Survey ResultsOFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER NO. LTC # 187 -2017 LETTER TO COMMISSION TO: Mayor Philip Levine and Members of the City Commission FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager DATE: April 6, 2017 SUBJECT: Miami -Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust Survey Results The purpose of this Letter to Commission is to provide information regarding the Miami -Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust survey results administered to City employees in December 2016 as a follow -up to an ethics training program provided by Ethics Commission staff in 2013. Please find the Commission on Ethics and Public Trust Press Release dated March 29, 2017 and 2016 Executive Summary attached for your review. The Miami -Dade Ethics Commission Staff presented an intensive ethics training program to approximately 250 City of Miami Beach employees in 2013, consisting of nine steps and more than twelve hours of classroom presentations and interaction. The employees were from departments dealing directly with the public regarding enforcement and related issues, including the Building, Code Compliance, Finance, Fire Prevention, Parking, Planning, and Procurement. The program was also video- recorded for its continued use in the training of new employees citywide, which has been done on a regular basis since 2013. As of April 2017, 2,072 employees have completed the Ethics Regulatory training online and 2,678 employees completing Ethics training online. Online courses can be accessed 24/7 from any internet connected device. The questionnaire used in 2016 was identical to that used in 2013, to provide a basis of assessing whether the attitudes of the employees in the participating departments had measurable changes during the three years since the completion of the original program. Overall, the findings suggest that City of Miami Beach employees from the regulatory departments surveyed are more satisfied with the City's ethical standards than they were at the time of the initial ethics survey in 2013. The recent questionnaires highlighted a number of positive trends, such as double - digit improvements with respect to the City's overall ethics and ethical standards, as well as co- worker morale. The findings further signal that management is doing a better job at finding ways to report and prevent corruption while making employees who report misconduct feel safer against retaliation. Additionally, the City has implemented the use of Body -worn cameras (BWC) in regulatory departments including Police, Fire, Code, and Parking, to strengthen accountability and transparency. Body -worn cameras have been useful in improving the performance of employees as well as the conduct of the community members who are recorded. Below is a breakdown of body -worn camera implementation and usage for each department: • Parking Department — 60 employees (5 Supervisors, 34 FT PESIs and 21 PT PESIs) are using the BWC during their shifts; cameras are to be used when issuing restricted or prohibited citations or when they have an interaction with the public. • Police Department — 150 BWC are now deployed with another 100 by end of 2017 to document law enforcement interactions with the public by recording evidence of actions, conditions and statements. • Fire Department — BWC will be used during all night club inspections and for annual inspections as needed and at the discretion of the fire chief. Staff is pending training for the new cameras that have been upgraded. • Code Department - Code Compliance has approximately 70% of field staff outfitted with BWC. Remaining staff will begin using the technology in the coming month. BWC are used to document code compliance violations and related interactions with the public, as well cis training. For the past year, I have conducted one -on -one sessions with all new hires where I personally discuss the importance of ethics within this organization. My open door policy allows for staff to share any concerns with me directly, if so desired. Additionally, staff is encouraged to use the Ethics and Public Trust webpage located on the intranet at https : / /miamibeach.sharepoint.com/ Pages /Ethicsandpublictrust.aspx to report any unethical conduct or other forms of public corruption, as well as review additional resources to support them in their job, including, but not limited to our Gift and Contribution Procedure. will continue to raise employees' awareness of what constitutes unethical or corrupt behavior. Should you have any questions, please reach out to me. C: Executive Staff Dr. Leslie Rosenfeld, Chief Learning Development Officer For Immediate Release: March 29, 2017 Contact: Joseph Centorino, Executive Director (305) 350 -0613 or centori @miamidade.gov Ethics training improves ethical conduct in Miami Beach Ethics training of public employees has become a standard requirement in government at all levels. But is there any evidence that ethics training actually improves government ethics? The Miami -Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE) believes the answer is yes, based on its recent survey of City of Miami Beach employees working in those departments believed to be the most susceptible to corruption. Almost four years ago, the COE initiated an intensive ethics training regimen for hundreds of employees in the city's regulatory departments -- those that interact with residents and businesses in connection with enforcement of city regulations, including building and code enforcement, fire rescue, planning, finance, parking and procurement. The program, recorded by city staff, has since been utilized continuously to train new employees in the same departments. Since the original training sessions, employees' confidence in the integrity of their local government has been bolstered. That was one of the key findings of a recent survey by the COE, intended to test the impact of the program. The COE embarked on the intensive ethics and awareness program in 2013 at the invitation of former City Manager Jorge Gonzalez, following a troubling series of ethical and criminal misdeeds in the city government. The program was carried out with the support of current Manager Jimmy Morales and the Mayor and City Commission, which appropriated funds for the project. The results of the December survey were compared with the results of a survey done three years earlier as part of the original program. Overall, the findings suggest that Miami Beach employees in the departments surveyed are more satisfied with the city's ethical standards than they were in 2013. The recent results highlighted a number of positive trends, such as double - digit improvements with respect to the City's overall ethics and ethical standards, as well as co- worker morale. For example, 81 percent of employees told COE they felt Miami Beach government itself was "ethical" in 2016 compared to 65 percent during the 2013 survey — a 25 percent increase over three years. Meanwhile, 77 percent of employees said they felt enough safeguards had been implemented by management to prevent corruption in the workplace — up significantly from 60 percent in 2013. Additionally, 80 percent of those surveyed said it was easier to "blow the whistle" on corrupt activity, compared to 64 percent in 2013. They also feel better about reporting bad behavior according to the responses to a question about fear of retaliation for whistleblowers. In the most recent survey, 67 percent of employees felt adequate protections exist, compared to just 33 percent in 2013. The number of employees reporting a bribe offer three years ago (27 percent) was cut to 22 percent, an indication that even potential bribers may be getting the message. The new survey showed employees seem to like the heightened emphasis on ethics, judging from the 16 percent improvement in co- worker morale over the past survey. Employees also gave higher marks to their supervisors with respect to job performance and personal ethics, the survey showed. Ethics Commission Executive Director Joseph Centorino pointed out that the city administration should get credit for the improvement, but also said, "The results show that ethics training can raise employees' awareness of what constitutes unethical or corrupt behavior and prepare them how to deal with it." "More important," he added, "employees respect the city's efforts to recognize and correct deficiencies in dealing with and responding to ethical issues, and that significantly improves morale." Centorino noted that Miami Beach officials have also taken the lead toward enhancing public trust by being the first municipality to embrace a "Civility Oath" for those in high positions, following the Ethics Commission's January passage of a resolution calling for local governments to adopt such a vow. Miami Beach's Mayor, Commissioners and top staff swore to "pledge fairness, integrity and civility, in all actions taken and all communications made by me as a public servant," during the City Commission meeting on February 8, 2016. The Ethics Commission was created in 1996 as an independent agency with advisory and quasi-judicial powers. It is composed of five members, serving staggered terms of four years each. Through a program of education, outreach and enforcement, the Commission seeks to empower the community and bolster public trust. # ## EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Findings of 2016 ethics questionnaire administered to City of Miami Beach employees Introduction During a seven -month period during 2013, the Miami -Dade Ethics Commission Staff presented an intensive ethics training program to approximately 250 City of Miami Beach employees, consisting of nine steps and more than twelve hours of classroom presentations and interaction. This unusual "bootcamp" approach to ethics training for public employees was arranged through an interlocal agreement between the City of Miami Beach and Miami -Dade County, paid for by the City. The employees were from "regulatory" departments dealing directly with the public regarding enforcement and related issues, including the Building, Code Compliance, Finance, Fire Prevention, Parking, Planning, and Procurement. The program was prompted by a request from former City Manager Jorge Gonzalez, due to significant problems generated by a number of individuals from among those departments who had been prosecuted for corruption - related crimes, as well as by his assessment of the ethics and corruption risks to the City from those departments. The program, conducted during the first year of the administration of City Manager Jimmy Morales, was provided explicit approval and support by Manager Morales as well as the Mayor and City Commission. The program was also video- recorded by employees of the City for its continued use in the training of new employees in those departments, which has been done on a regular basis since 2013. The final step of the program consisted of personal interviews by Ethics Commission staff with 203 of the employees from those departments, and the administration of a questionnaire to those employees, which included an assessment of their attitudes on a number of ethics and corruption - related issues in the City government. The results of the questionnaire were included in a Final Report issued by the Ethics Commission staff to Manager Morales, in February 2014. During December, 2016, Miami -Dade Ethics Commission staff, with the cooperation of City Manager Morales and his staff, re- administered two sections of the original questionnaire to 218 current City of Miami Beach employees within the same departments that had been the subject of the original ethics training. This group included many of those who personally participated in the original program, as well as a substantial number of employees hired in those departments since 2013, who received the video- recorded version of the training as part of their orientation. The purpose of the second questionnaire was to provide a basis for assessing whether the attitudes of the employees in the participating departments had measurably changed during the three years since the completion of the original program. The questions selected were identical to questions from the original questionnaire administered in December 2013. The methodology used to administer and record the answers was identical to that used in 2013— personal interviews of City employees by Ethics Conunission staff. The results are summarized below through a comparison of the average responses to those questions included on both questionnaires. The tabulation of the responses was done by COE Forensic Accountant /Investigator Karl Ross. Attached to this summary are copies of the original program outline as proposed and conducted in 2013, as well as the questionnaires used in both 2013 and 2016. Comparison of 2013 results to 2016 results: Part I • In response to Question #1, overall job satisfaction was slightly higher in 2016 at 8.2 on a scale of 1 to 10, compared to 8 for the survey conducted in December 2013. • In response to Question #2, employees said working conditions improved from 7.4 in 2013 to a rating of 8.1 in 2016 — a nearly 10 percent increase. • In response to Question #3, employees rated the quality of their supervision at 8.3 in 2016 as compared to 7.7 in 2013 — an increase of 8 percent. • In response to Question #4, employees rated the quality of their training in 2016 as 7.5 versus 7 in 2013 — a 7 percent improvement. • In response to Question #5, employees rated the morale of their fellow co- workers as 7.1 in 2016, registering a 16 percent improvement over the 6.1 assigned in 2013. • In response to Question #6, employees again gave their supervisors higher marks in 2016, rating their ethical standards at 8.6 compared to 8.1 in 2013. • In response to Question #7, employees also reported a more favorable view of their co- workers' ethics in 2016 at 8.6 when compared to 2013 at 8.2. • In response to Question #8, employees rated the City's overall ethical standards at 8 in 2016 as opposed to 7.1 in 2013 — or a 13 percent increase over that period. Comparison of 2013 results to 2016 results: Part II • In response to Question #9, 22 percent of employees reported having been offered a bribe at some point in their careers — down from 27 percent in 2013. • In response to Question #10, 13 percent of employees said they were aware of bribery or corruption in CMB government. The percentage is unchanged over 2013. • In response to Question #11, 90 percent of employees said they felt they received enough training to identify and avoid ethical pitfalls — slightly lower than the 92 percent that expressed having received adequate training in 2013. • In response to Question #12, 77 percent of employees said they felt adequate safeguards were in place to thwart corruption compared to just 60 percent in 2013. • In response to Question #13, 80 percent of employees expressed that adequate measurers were in place to report corruption — up significantly from the 64 percent in 2013. • In response to Question #14, 81 percent of employees viewed CMB Government to be ethical compared to 65 percent in 2013 — an overall improvement of 25 percent. • In response to Question #15, 67 percent of employees said they felt there were adequate protections against retaliation for reporting ethical misconduct. This is more than double the 33 percent of employees who responded affirmatively in 2013. Other findings and highlights among departments: • Based on the 2016 results, Procurement showed the highest level of job satisfaction at 9.3 out of 10 and co- worker morale, also 9.3 out of 10, while Parking seemed to be the most problematic department with job satisfaction of 7.4 and co- worker morale of 4.4. • The departments with the highest percentage of employees stating they had been offered bribes were Fire Prevention at 36 percent followed by Parking at 35 percent and Code Compliance at 30 percent. Finance and Procurement employees reported no such overtures while Planning reported 8 percent affirmative response. • The reduction in the percent of employees offered a bribe from 27 to 22 percent is likely more significant than it may seem. 30 percent of employees taking the survey in 2013 reported having been offered a bribe at some point. This contrasts with just 9.4 percent of employees joining the regulatory ranks since that time. This suggests that the incidence of bribery may be declining due to increased awareness by regulatory employees as well as reduced expectations of the receptivity of employees to bribes by potential bribers. Conclusion Overall, the above findings suggest that City of Miami Beach employees from the regulatory departments surveyed are more satisfied with the City's ethical standards than they were at the time of the initial ethics survey in 2013. The recent questionnaires highlighted a number of positive trends, such as double -digit improvements with respect to the City's overall ethics and ethical standards, as well as co- worker morale. The findings further signal that management is doing a better job at finding ways to report and prevent corruption while making employees who report misconduct feel safer against retaliation. The favorable trend in employee attitudes documented in this comparison cannot be attributed to any single factor, but is likely related to both the intensive ethics training that the employees have received over the past three years, as well as appropriate follow -up actions by administrators, supervisors and the employees themselves. The original questionnaire was administered at the end of the 2013 live version of the ethics training. Because the employees were not interviewed prior to the commencement of that training, we are unable to determine the impact of the original training apart from the follow -up video training. Assuming that the original live presentation would have left a positive impact on those attitudes following that seven -month program and prior to the first survey, it is probable that the impact of the original training, plus the continued use of the video version of that training, would have shown an even greater improvement in attitudes toward ethics than what was concluded from the available data. ##