News

By Mary Hladky

The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District has hired a former West Palm Beach communications director, who was fined $4,500 last year for violating state ethics laws, to handle its public relations work.
Elliot Cohen, now principal of My PR Guru in Boca Raton, and the state’s Commission on Ethics agreed to settle the ethics case in 2019, with Cohen admitting to three violations and agreeing to pay a fine.
The case arose from a complaint filed by the Palm Beach County Office of Inspector General, which had conducted its own investigation and issued a 40-page report in 2016 detailing Cohen’s ethical and other lapses.
The ethics commission found probable cause that Cohen misused his public office to solicit business for a previous PR company he ran on the side, worked for a company that was in contract negotiations with the city while on the city’s payroll, and solicited business for his company based on information he learned working for the city.
The OIG’s investigation examined those ethics matters and also found that Cohen disclosed confidential police information that included the identities of undercover officers and confidential informants and other sensitive information about criminal investigations.
The president of the county’s police union called for Cohen to be fired, saying he had jeopardized lives. At least one confidential informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration was moved to a safe location. City officials kept Cohen on the payroll.
The OIG said that Cohen should have known to redact confidential information, which was posted to the city’s website in response to a public records request.
Beach and Park District commissioners voted unanimously on June 7 to approve a contract with Cohen on the recommendation of Executive Director Briann Harms.
In a memo to commissioners, Harms said a public relations firm was needed to provide residents with accurate information about the district.
She cited incorrect information reported to the media about district projects and unfair characterizations of the district’s goals, priorities and financial abilities.
In an interview, Harms said she was aware of Cohen’s ethics violations, saying they were “unfortunate” and that Cohen should have left his city job when he launched his company. “It happens,” she said. “That doesn’t make it right.”
But Cohen’s missteps won’t interfere with what he will do for the district, she said. The work he has done for cities, Harms said, is comprehensive and “can give a message in a positive way that is easy to understand.”
“There is a lot of misinformation out there that is disinformation,” she said. “If we aren’t controlling the narrative, someone else will.”
Under terms of the contract, My PR Guru will be paid $18,000 annually to do work similar to what the company is doing for South Miami, which includes writing a newsletter that is published on the city’s website and on social media. He was hired by South Miami in December.
Harms used the terms of South Miami’s contract, including the payment amount, rather than seek bids. South Miami solicited bids, and Cohen was the low bidder.
Cohen, a former TV news reporter, served as the public information officer for West Palm Beach for about eight months in 2005, leaving to become the director of media relations for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. He was rehired by West Palm Beach as PIO in 2012, promoted to communications director that year, and resigned in 2016.
The ethics commission found probable cause that Cohen improperly used his position with the city to solicit business for Cohen Publicity, his company at the time.
The commission concluded he offered his services to a Pahokee official after learning that the official had sought guidance from West Palm Beach on human resources and communications matters.
Also while working for the city, Cohen signed a contract with Redevelopment Management Associates in 2013 to provide public relations and marketing guidance. When RMA sought a contract with the city to run its Community Redevelopment Agency that year, Cohen told RMA he would suspend his work for the company until the contract was awarded.
But the ethics commission found that Cohen maintained contact with RMA officials and was paid by the company while he was also involved with the city’s process of awarding the contract.
In a text message to The Palm Beach Post after he agreed to settle the case, Cohen said that “it was easier to simply settle and pay a fine” rather than “reconstruct the same explanations” he had given to the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics, which cleared him in 2016.
The Beach and Park District and the city have an acrimonious relationship, with disputes including how to develop the Boca National golf course and, when that project became moot, what to do with the golf course property.
Golf course disagreements have obscured the important role that the district has in providing recreation to residents and the district’s responsiveness to residents’ requests, such as opening six pickleball courts at Patch Reef Park, Harms said.
A more robust public relations effort can highlight the district’s achievements and explain how residents’ tax money is being spent, she said.
“We need the public to understand what we do in this community and how we support (the city’s) parks and recreation department,” Harms said.