It took a gaudy cell phone bill from West Miami, but Gov. Charlie Crist finally got what he wanted.
The Florida Supreme Court has approved Crist's revised request to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate public corruption, which could easily be translated as an effort to clean up politics in South Florida.
The justices issued a unanimous order Wednesday, just two days after rejecting Crist's initial request on a 6-1 vote.
In recent years, Crist has spent more time suspending elected officials for corruption than improving the state's struggling economy.
As many as 30 officials have received the boot statewide from the gov, most recently in West Miami, where the mayor ran up a $70,000 phone bill on his city-issued cell.
“We must remain committed to creating an environment where any crime committed by a public official is exposed and addressed as quickly as possible," Crist said in a statement after the announcement.
Over the past two months, South Florida politics have suffered more punches to the gut and black eyes by corruption than an opponent in a Manny Pacquiao boxing match.
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The high court on Monday said Crist failed to allege the general crimes or wrongs to be investigated covering more than a single
judicial circuit as required by law.
Crist immediately filed an amended request that filled in those blanks. Most of them had to involve last month's suspension list.
On the Miami City Commission, Michelle Spence-Jones was suspended for corruption while her colleague Angel Gonzalez was forced to resign for improperly using his post the same day.
Broward County officials have also been corruption targets of the feds, most notably Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, who Crist had to suspend after he was arrested for money laundering.
