81 ORDINANCE NO. _____ _
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3 An Ordinance amending Sec. 8A-! (e) of Chapter 8A of the City of Sonth Miami's
4 Code of Ordinances to provide an exception for solicitation of gifts sponsored by
5 non-profit organizations or that benefit the City and adopting applicable portions of
6 the Miami-Dade Connty ethics ordinance concerning such exceptions.
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8 WHEREAS, the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics has provided the City of South
9 Miami ("City") with an ethics opinion that concludes that the promotion, by members of the City
10 Commission, of non-profit events is a violation of the City's' ethics code. A copy of the opinion is
11 attached to this resolution; and
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13 WHEREAS, the City's current ethics ordinance does not provide an exception for the promotion
14 of non-profit events or the solicitation of donations that benefit the City; and
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16 WHEREAS, the Miami-Dade County ethic's code Section 2-11.1 (e) (2) does provide for the
17 following exceptions which include the promotion of non-profit events and solicitation of gifts that
18 benefit the County:
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20 e. Gifts solicited by County employees or departmental personnel on behalf of the
21 County in the performance of their official duties for use solely by the County in conducting its
22 official business;
23 f. Gifts solicited by Commissioners on behalf of the County in the performance of
24 their official duties for use solely by the County in conducting its official business;
25 g. Gifts solicited by Commissioners, or their staff members, on behalf of any
26 nonprofit organization for use solely by that organization where neither the Commissioner, nor
27 his or her staff receives any compensation as a result of the solicitation. As used in this
28 subsection, a "nonprofit organization" shall mean any entity described in section 501(c)(3) of the
29 Internal Revenue Code (the "Code") that is tax exempt under section 501(a) of the Code. As used
30 in this subsection, "compensation" means any money, gift, favor, political contribution, thing of
31 value or other financial benefit.
32 ; and
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34 WHEREAS, the Mayor and City Commission for the City of South Miami desire to adopt the
35 exemption for the solicitations of gifts which would include the promotion of the events sponsored by
36 non-profit organizations.
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38 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION
39 OF THE CITY OF SOUTH MIAMI, FLORIDA:
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41 Section 1. Section 8A-l (e) titled "Gifts" of Chapter 8A of the City of South Miami's Code of
42 Ordinances is hereby amended to read as follows:
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44 (e) Gifts.
45 (I) Definition. The term "gift" shall refer to the transfer of anything of economic value, whether
46 in the form of money, service, loan, travel, entertainment, hospitality, item or promise, or in
47 any other form, without adequate and lawful consideration.
48 (2) Exceptions. The provisions of paragraph (e)(I) shall not apply to:
49 a. Political contributions specifically authorized by state law;
50 b. Gifts from relatives or members of one's household, unless the person is a conduit
51 on behalf of a third party to the delivery of a gift that is prohibited under paragraph (3);
52 c. Awards for professional or civic achievement;
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1 d. Material such as books, reports, periodicals or pamphlets which are solely
2 informational or of an advertising nature.
3 e. Gifts solicited by City employees or departmental personnel on behalf of the City
4 in the performance oftheir official duties for use solely by the City in conducting its official
5 business;
6 f. Gifts solicited by Commissioners on behalf of the City in the performance of
7 their official duties for use solely by the City in conducting its official business;
8 g. Gifts solicited by Commissioners, or their staff members, on behalf of any
9 nonprofit organization for use solely by that organization where neither the Commissioner,
10 nor his or her staff receives any compensation as a result of the solicitation. As used in this
11 subsection, a "nonprofit organization" shall mean any entity described in section 501(c)(3) of
12 the Internal Revenue Code (the "Code") that is tax exempt under section 50Ha) of the Code.
13 As used in this subsection, "compensation" means any money, gift, favor, political
14 contribution, thing of value or other financial benefit.
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16 * * *
17 Section 2. Codification. The provisions of this ordinance 'shall become and be made part of the
18 Code of Ordinances of the City of South Miami as amended; that the sections of this ordinance may be
19 renumbered or re-Iettered to accomplish such intention; and that the word "ordinance" may be changed to
20 "section" or other appropriate word.
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22 Section 3. Severability. If any section, clause, sentence, or phrase of this ordinance is for any
23 reason held invalid or unconstitutional by a court of competent jurisdiction, this holding shall not affect
24 the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance.
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26 Section 4. Ordinances in Conflict. All ordinances or parts of ordinances and all sections and
27 parts of sections of ordinances in direct conflict herewith are hereby repealed. However, it is not the
28 intent of this section to repeal entire ordinances, or parts of ordinances, that give the appearance of being
29 in conflict when the two ordinances can be harmonized or when only a portion of the ordinance in conflict
30 needs to be repealed to harmonize the ordinances. If the ordinance in conflict can be harmonized by
31 amending its terms, it is hereby amended to harmonize the two ordinances. Therefore, only that portion
32 that needs to be repealed to harmonize the two ordinances shall be repealed.
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34 Section 5. Effective Date. This ordinance shall become effective upon enactment.
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PASSED AND ENACTED this __ day of _____ , 2015.
ATTEST:
CITY CLERK
1st Reading
2nd Reading
READ AND APPROVED AS TO FORM:
LANGUAGE, LEGALITY AND
EXECUTION THEREOF
CITY ATTORNEY
Page 2 of2
APPROVED:
MAYOR
COMMISSION VOTE:
Mayor Stoddard:
Vice Mayor Harris:
Commissioner Edmond:
Commissioner Liebman:
Commissioner Welsh:
Pepe, Thomas F.
From:
Sent:
Centorino, Joseph (COE) <CENTORI@miamidade.gov>
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 3:24 PM
To: Pepe, Thomas F.
Cc: Diaz-Greco, Gilma M. (CO E)
Subject: [BULK] INQ 15-77 .Thomas F. Pepe, City Attorney, City of South Miami (Gifts)
Importance: Low
Mr. Pepe:
You have inquired regarding whether a City of South Miami commissioner may, at a commission meeting, promote a
running event sponsored by a non-profit organization, where the sponsor requires participants to pay a registration fee
that will be used to pay the cost of the event, but where the balance will be donated to a charity by the sponsor.
I will assume for the purposes of this inquiry that the language used by any commissioner in question would be for the
purpose of encouraging members of the public to participate in this event, and, thereby, to pay the registration fee for
the purpose of benefiting the designated charity. The registration fee would represent a gift insofar as it would include
a portion to be donated to a specified charitable cause. The portion of the registration fee attributable to the charitable
donation would, in effect, be a gift under Section BA-l(e)(3) ofthe South Miami Code, since the amount ofthe
registration fee would exceed the amount of the consideration provided for the event itself.
Unlike the County Ethics Code, the City of South Miami Ethics Code does not contain an exception for gifts solicited on
behalf of a charitable SOI(c)(3) organization. Therefore, I would not read such an exception into the South Miami Code,
which pretty closely follows the County Code in describing what is a gift, but does not include the exception that is
provided under the County Code for charitable solicitations. The City of South Miami is permitted to impose a stricter
standard for solicitation of gifts than does the County Code.
Accordingly, the broad prohibition against gift solicitation under Section BA-l(e)(3) would apply to this solicitation, and
the commissioner should not participate in soliciting for this gift.
Sincerely,
Joseph M. Centorino
Executive Director and General Counsel
Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust
From: Pepe, .Thomas F. [mailto:.TPepe@southmiamifl.gov]
Sent: Thursday, April 09, 201S 6:32 PM
To: Diaz-Greco, Gilma M. (COE)
Subject: Commissioner sponsoring a non-profit event
Can a commissioner, at a commission meeting, promote a running event sponsored by a
non-profit organization when the sponsor requires participants to pay a registration fee
the will be used to pay the cost ofthe event and the balance will be donated to a charity
by the sponsor?
1
After speaking to you on the phone, I researched our ordinance and I didn't find anything
that would prohibit the promotion of such an event. I think it was your opinion that it
was prohibited by the City's ethics ordinance 8A-l (e) (3). I think that what you were
saying was that the commissioner would be soliciting a gift for the third party, i.e., the
corporate sponsor of the running event. 8A-l (e) (3) prohibits a commissioner from
soliciting a gift but it doesn't say whether the prohibition involves a gift being solicited
for himself or whether it includes a solicitation of a gift for a third party. Was it your
opinion that it prohibits the solicitation of a gift for a third party and that when the
commissioner promotes the event he is soliciting someone to give their money to the
third party?
If that is the case, wouldn't it be different in the case of a running event since the payment
ofthe registration fee is not a gift because the person paying the fee gets something of
value for his payment, i. e., the opportunity to run in the event?
8A-I (e) (3) Prohibitions. A person described in paragraphs (b)(I) through (6) shall neither solicit nor demand any
gift. It is also unlawful for any person or entity to offer, give or agree to give to any person included in the tenns
defined in paragraphs (b)(1) through (6), or for any person included in the terms defined in paragraphs (b)(1) through
(6) to accept or agree to accept from another person or entity, and gift for or because of:
a. An official public action taken, or to be taken, or which could be taken, or all omission or failure to take a
public action;
b. A legal duty performed or to be performed, or which could be perfonned, or an omission or failw·e to perform
a legal duty;
c. A legal duty violated or to be violated, or which could be violated by any person included in the tem1 defined
in paragraph (b)( 1); or
d. Attendance or absence from a public meeting at which official action is to be taken.
Thank you.
Very truly yours,
Thomas F. Pepe
City Attorney
City of South Miami
1450 Madruga Avenue, Ste 202,
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
Tel: (305) 667-2564
Fax: (305) 341-0584
E-mail: tpepe@southmiamifl.gov
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