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Tamarac to Vote on Strengthening Ethics Laws Amid Corruption Allegations and Public Outcry 1

Tamarac City Commission meeting in June.

Tamarac commissioners are scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to bolster the city’s ethics laws in an effort to increase transparency and improve the conduct of city officials.

According to city documents, the proposed changes would update Tamarac’s Code of Ethics and Lobbyist Activities Ordinances, which are “outdated” and have not been updated since 2007 and 2011, respectively.

The additional ethics rules are being recommended by Tamarac City Manager Levent Sucuoglu. His proposal follows a December 2023 move by Mayor Michelle Gomez – with the backing of commissioners – to update city laws to create “greater transparency, decorum, and standards, to govern [commissioners’ and appointed officials’] communications with applicants, lobbyists, and developers,” city records show.

Tamarac officials have repeatedly been accused of misconduct in recent years, including allegations of pay-for-play “corruption” lobbed at Commissioner Marlon Bolton by fellow Commissioner Elvin Villalobos.

“We’ve turned into a farce, is the bottom line,” Gomez said at a recent commission meeting.

The updates to city ethics laws would include a clause in the standards of conduct section barring public officers from accepting “gifts or other special considerations given to influence a vote or public position” and another barring them from using their “public position for personal gain.”

Under the revised laws, lobbyists would also face a new requirement: disclosure of any requests made by commissioners to lobbyists and any offers made by lobbyists to commissioners during lobbyist meetings on city property.

The disclosures would be added to the array of details lobbyists already must provide regarding their communications with commissioners. Such disclosures must be made in city contact logs, which are filed for public inspection.

The logs, however, only cover lobbying activities at commissioners’ “offices or elsewhere on city premises,” according to city records.

Under the revised laws, city officers would also pledge to “disclose suspected instances of impropriety to the appropriate authorities” and adhere to certain “values,” including discussing all contract negotiations in public and not representing third parties’ interests before the commission or city boards.

The revised ethics ordinances would not add any enforcement mechanisms or penalties for misconduct by city officials. City laws outline the process for punishing lobbyists who break the rules but say nothing about punishing elected or appointed officials.

Wednesday’s scheduled vote on the ethics laws follows numerous accusations of impropriety made against Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton since his election in 2016, including allegations he bullied city employees, improperly received COVID relief funds for his church, made antisemitic remarks about Mayor Michelle Gomez, and anonymously launched the Tamarac Post website that routinely attacks political opponents.

In May, in a move criticized by Villalobos as “bribery,” Bolton pushed for Tamarac to ditch its longtime waste and recycling hauler, Waste Management, and replace it with Coastal Waste & Recycling—the top donor to the Bolton-linked Broward Vision PAC.

Records show the PAC received $20,000 from Coastal between 2022 and 2023. State filings show that Coastal also made a $500 contribution to the Friends of Marlon Bolton PAC in December 2023.

Bolton denied his vote on the $80 million waste contract was influenced by campaign contributions. The vote favored Waste Management, which will be awarded the contract at Wednesday’s meeting.

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Author Profile

Kevin Deutsch

Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning journalist and author of two nonfiction books. He covers general assignment news and Jewish community issues for Talk Media. He has also worked as a staff writer at The Miami Times, the Rio Grande SUN, the New York Daily News, Newsday, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, The Riverdale Press, and Bronx Justice News.