Ethics Commission considers adding fines for frivolous complaints

This is unfortunately necessary as some people fail to see the role of the Ethics Commission and what they were formed to address in the first place. Click title for link to the Sun-Sentinel article.

Imposing penalties for filing frivolous ethics complaints could be one of the enforcement changes considered by Palm Beach County's Ethics Commission.
The Palm Beach County League of Cities on Thursday called for the watchdog board to add a fine or some other cost for people who file ethics complaints against local officials that turn out to be unfounded.
"People can't use this for political purposes," Richard Radcliffe, executive director of the League of Cities, said about frivolous ethics complaints. "We have to come up with some way."
The Ethics Commission has the ability to require the payment of legal fees and other costs associated with a case if it finds an ethics complaint "frivolous," but hasn't done it before, according to according to Ethics Commission Executive Director Steve Cullen.