Audio By Carbonatix
It sure sounds like a nice gesture: Attorney Sam Goren’s Fort Lauderdale firm gives pro bono legal work to the Broward League of Cities, the nonprofit organization through which the county’s 31 municipal governments collaborate and work toward state and federal policies that serve their collective good. It’s a gathering place for some of the county’s power brokers.
Now maybe I’m a cynic, but I’m not nearly as convinced as League executive director Rhonda Calhoun that Goren is providing this service purely out of the goodness of his heart.
The topic came up during my interview this week with Calhoun, who is also a commissioner with the North Broward Hospital District and who deserves credit for being a lone voice for ethics reform along that ethics-challenged dais.
The commissioners, it seems, are not fans of Juice coverage of their board, and it’s been hard to get interviews with them, as well as with Goren. So having reached Calhoun, I couldn’t resist asking question about Goren that’s gone unanswered for months.
The question is an outgrowth of this post. Goren had conflicts of interest with the district that made him unwilling to offer full participation in an ethics investigation there. Yet he did not disclose conflicts of interest when he was offered the job of being the district’s interim general counsel.
I believe we mentioned how handsomely that job pays.
So the question is: Have the commissioners who hired Goren asked about those conflicts of interest?
The answer I got from Calhoun: “Sam is the most ethical person I have ever met.”
I rephrased, then asked again. Have you or the other commissioners clarified issues about whether Goren had conflicts of interest with the district? And again: “Sam Goren is the most ethical person I have ever met.”
Next, I asked about Goren’s firm acting as general counsel to Calhoun’s Broward League of Cities. “He does it pro bono for the League of Cities,” she said. “Which is great, because our budget is (practically) zero.”
Remember, Goren’s firm is also the general counsel for the Broward Housing Authority, where Joseph Cobo serves as a commissioner. Cobo, of course, is also a Broward Health commissioner. Yep, he’s the one currently under criminal investigation.
I just spoke with the Broward Housing Authority CEO, Kevin Cregan, who told me that Goren’s firm bills the nonprofit for the legal work, most of which is handled by attorney David Tolces, he said.
So here are the questions for those of you whose tax dollars help fund the $1 billion public hospital district:
Do you trust Rhonda Calhoun to demand a high standard of ethics from the district’s general counsel, Goren, when she is so very grateful for his willingness to provide free legal work for the nonprofit where she’s the executive director?
Do you trust Goren, whose firm collects legal fees from two major nonprofits where Joseph Cobo is a board member, to recommend a proper course of punishment for Cobo’s ethical slip-ups?
And finally, given all the dirt we’ve dug up on the district’s board — five of the seven, not including Calhoun, have had legitimate ethical questions raised — do you trust Goren to thwart future ethical misconduct by those officials, who have given him this job and who appear not to have questioned his own ethics in taking that job?
But I still had one question of my own for Calhoun as regards Goren. He’s an “interim” general counsel who has no expertise in health care law, meaning that the district must send more legal work to outside counsel, a very expensive proposition during a period when health care providers must be responsible stewards. So when will Broward Health hire a more qualified, permanent replacement?
“Oh, we’ve decided to retain Sam Goren’s firm for an extended period of time,” said Calhoun this week. The issue is on the back-burner, apparently so more pressing concerns are dealt with. “There’s just so much going on right now,” said Calhoun.
