Broward elections chief deserves fine

Two decades ago, long before Pete Antonacci became Broward County supervisor of elections, he served as a member of the state Commission on Ethics. That meant he sat in judgment of others accused of breaking the ethics laws.

Later, as former Gov. Rick Scott’s legal counsel, he negotiated a controversial agreement with the ethics commission that allowed Scott to conceal $74 million in assets in a newly created blind trust.

Then Antonacci got an opinion from the ethics panel that allowed his wife, lawyer Anne Longman, to represent clients at the South Florida Water Management District while he was its executive director.

With that resumé, you would think Antonacci was an expert in ethics law. Think again.

Antonacci has been fined $1,750 for filing a sloppy and incomplete 2019 financial disclosure form that did not follow state law by identifying his assets, including the address and value of his home, a 401(k) plan, and various investment and bank accounts. He also failed to list as a liability the Fort Lauderdale condo he rents for $1,650 a month. He even got his own 2018 salary wrong, vastly overstating it as $178,000, though he’d held the elections job for only a month. Scott appointed him in December of that year to replace embattled elections chief Brenda Snipes.

The paperwork was “grossly deficient,” in the words of Judy Stern, a sharp-eyed Fort Lauderdale political consultant. Stern filed an ethics complaint against Antonacci last September. The commission imposed the fine at its June 5 meeting in Tallahassee.

Antonacci knew better and said as much. He belatedly filed two amended forms that provided what the law requires, listing each asset in his financial accounts worth more than $1,000.

He told an ethics investigator that “he completed the form in a way that cut corners.” He said it was the result of “neglect,” not an intent to hide. After filing the new forms, Antonacci’s listed net worth jumped by nearly a million dollars, from $2.65 million to $3.71 million.

“I inexcusably made several mistakes on my 2018 financial disclosure,” Antonacci told the editorial board. “While there was no intent to conceal, as the financial items had been disclosed on several prior annual filings, these mistakes are my own. The commission’s findings were not contested.”

The financial disclosure statement — known as Form 6, a “full and public disclosure of financial interests” — is a cornerstone of the Sunshine Amendment, the first successful statewide citizens’ initiative led by former Gov. Reubin Askew in 1976 to raise ethical standards in government after a series of scandals.

The detailed instructions for public officials who must file Form 6 clearly state that every asset and liability over $1,000 in the previous calendar year must be individually disclosed. “Assets also include investment products held in IRAs, brokerage accounts, and the Florida College Investment Plan,” the form states. In underlined text, it adds: “Note that the product contained in a brokerage account, IRA, or the Florida College Investment Plan is your asset — not the account or plan itself.” That was one of Antonacci’s mistakes.

On the form itself, Antonacci checked a box confirming that he had completed a state-mandated ethics training course.

Form 6 is not to be taken lightly. The vast majority of officeholders complete it properly, but there have been high-profile violators, including former U.S. Rep. David Rivera of Miami, former Senate President Mike Haridopolos of Melbourne and four Monroe County commissioners in the Keys. So many people have been fined for Form 6 violations that it no longer seems newsworthy. Antonacci’s case received no media attention — until now.

To get people’s attention, we suggest the Legislature increase the paltry fines. Make the penalty $5,000 or 1 percent of an official’s net worth, whichever is greater, and include a mandatory suspension from office until the fine is paid. In Antonacci’s case, the fine would have been $37,100.

That would have left a mark and sent a signal that violating the law carries serious consequences.

Antonacci, 71, has held several important posts, including statewide prosecutor, deputy attorney general, Palm Beach County state attorney and CEO of Enterprise Florida. Today he’s in charge of supervising elections in Broward County. That he was sloppy in disclosing his finances hardly imbues confidence that he will tend to the myriad details of running this year’s pivotal election.

Antonacci’s lack of experience in elections made him a controversial choice for the appointment. So did his loyalty to Scott, a Republican partisan who made baseless accusations of fraud in his 2018 U.S. Senate race against Democrat Bill Nelson, which he ultimately won.

Antonacci promised to get the little things right when he took the elections job 18 months ago. Broward voters can only hope his ethics violation is an aberration.

Cutting corners on an ethics form is bad enough. Cutting corners in an election would be catastrophic.

Sun Sentinel

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Dan Sweeney, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.