With South Florida local governments plagued by corruption scandals in recent months, the Palm Beach County government is taking active measures to eliminate corruption from its operations.

The county has appointed and sworn in an Ethics Commission that held its first meeting on Tuesday.

Like Broward County and the City of Miami, federal corruption investigations have led to the arrest and imprisonment of Palm Beach County commissioners. Three county commissioners were arrested over the past year following corruption investigations.

According to reports, the Palm Beach County Ethics Commission, an independently appointed volunteer entity, has been commissioned to hear cases of alleged violations to the county’s ethic codes (which were also recently implemented), offer advisory opinions pertaining to ethics violations, and coordinate ethics training for county officials and employees.

Lindy Persaud, a community coordinator in Riviera Beach, and a former resident of Broward County, welcomes the appointment of the ethics commission, but is somewhat weary of its effectiveness.

“I am anticipating that the commission will really work independently, and be a force to reckon with against future corruption by county officials. But, I am weary that the members of the commission could be influenced and controlled by the commission members who appoint them. Corruption infects most of South Florida governments and it must be cured if the citizens are to have any confidence in their governments,” Persaud said.

Alice Garnier of Port St. Lucie was extremely pessimistic about the role of the new commission: “Ethics?! Ethics commission? Look, placing government and ethics in the same sentence is contradictory. Soon the commission members will be subjected to corruption too. The best ethics commission is the FBI, not any local officials.”

Reports indicate that the top priorities on the current agenda of the ethics commission are to hire an executive director and participate in choosing the county's new inspector general to be directly responsible for eliminating financial waste and corrupt practices from the county’s operations. The chairman of the county ethics commission is Edward Rodgers, a retired Circuit Court judge and former Riviera Beach commissioner.

The new Palm Beach code of ethics includes guidelines for more disclosure of potential conflicts of interest and more scrutiny of county land deals. It also includes provisions for punishing ethics violators with up to 60 days in jail, plus fines. The ethics code also gives the Ethics Commission authority to rule on local cases of suspected violations.