Miamians who voted four-to-one in August to empower an independent inspector general at city hall have gotten less than half a loaf in an ugly bait-and-switch that puts a would-be independent office under commissioners’ thumbs. While voters were led to believe that an independent inspector general would probe anything that might be shady, commissioners this month set tight limits on what a less-than-independent inspector general can truly look into. Imagine an investigative office that can’t look at the obvious without a sworn complaint by someone with personal knowledge of wrongdoing. That’s the way commissioners have handcuffed the job. Under rules like that, there could be no local “Deep Throat,” the anonymous source who 50 years ago triggered the Watergate investigation that eventually ousted the president of the United States. Deep Throat’s tips led to newspaper investigative reports, but a city inspector general couldn’t use news reports as tips, either. Commissioners made clear that media reports of wrongdoing, or simply of government efficiency, can’t be investigated without a witness coming forward under oath.  Nor could tips from within city hall be heeded. Even under oath, the inspector general couldn’t take a complaint from the inside unless the complainant had personal knowledge – and being told by a co-worker is not personal knowledge.  Even if 100 people told the inspector general anonymously of a shady situation, the office couldn’t take such complaints. Nor could a city inspector general look independently into anything without a sworn complaint under oath from somebody who knows.  There’s no independence there – and certainly there won’t be many tips to evaluate, no matter how bad things may be in the city. How many people with personal knowledge of government problems will come forward under public oath knowing that a vindictive commissioner could then go after them? True independence allows an inspector general to turn over rocks and find what does, or doesn’t, lurk there. And because that happens, confidence in government can grow, just because an independent watchdog finds nothing amiss. And, should something be amiss, the watchdog can shine light on it. An independent inspector general isn’t a prosecutor. It’s a source telling the government and the public what’s going on and referring potential criminal conduct, if any and anywhere in city government, to proper authorities.  Miami-Dade County for decades has had such an independent inspector general who fields anonymous complaints and can look into anything without making complaints public.  Last year that office got 508 complaints and found only 15 worth investigating, weeding out bad tips but actually leading to some prosecutions and convictions while cleaning up flawed government operations. Nobody had to complain under oath, because complaints are tips, not charges. Nobody was tarred with frivolous complaints. The process works. The county office requires no identification of a tipster, no oath, no personal knowledge. It then sorts out what’s worth looking into without commissioners demanding proof of who said what about whom and who can even offer a tip. The county’s inspector general is truly independent. And just wait until the city commission sets an inspector general’s budget and staff size and chooses who gets the job. That’s yet to come. After a nomination process, the commission is to vote on who will lead any probing into city government. Commissioner Joe Carollo was the lone holdout on the structure of this job, not because these barriers to investigations upset him but because he thinks even these toothless watchdog powers might still be enough to initiate “illegitimate investigations.” What, pray, is an illegitimate investigation? One that commissioners don’t want carried out?   If all this instills confidence in City of Miami voters that someone is watching the store on their behalf, I’ll happily sell them my share of the Brooklyn Bridge. Related Posts:Muzzling a city watchdog would fuel broad public distrustMiami marching toward powerful inspector general officeMiamians to vote on independent investigatorCity commission has given voters a tool to root out…Felix Jimenez: Inspector general works to deter…The post Miami handcuffs a supposedly independent inspector general appeared first on Miami Today.