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County Attorney Defends Anti-Transparency Rule in Ethics Program
Thursday, March 27th, 2014
Robert Wechsler
In most cities and counties throughout the United States, the city
or county attorney is in charge of the government ethics program. I
have written a great deal about why this is not a best practice, but
city and county attorneys still keep providing further reasons.
Here's one from Tioga County, NY.
According to an article in the Star-Gazette yesterday, Tioga County has a law that prohibits citizens from making copies of officials' annual financial disclosure forms. They can't even photograph them, type the data into a computer, or dictate the data into a phone.
According to the article, the Tioga County Attorney "said it’s her position that the prohibition on duplicating the forms can be legally justified." She said the county can prohibit the public from making copies because of a portion of a now defunct state law that established a now defunct state commission. "Because Tioga County’s ethics law was originally enacted in 1990 — before the former state ethics law was repealed — [the county attorney] said its provisions are still valid."
According to the article, the executive director of the state Committee on Open Government disagreed, because the law the county attorney pointed to no longer exists.
A county attorney who defends an anti-transparency law, in a government ethics program of all places, that is clearly in contradiction of the state's freedom of information laws should have nothing to do with a government ethics program (she is now Statements Access Officer, so she is in charge of implementing the illegal rule and could have, at any time, declared it illegal; she also acts as counsel to the ethics board).
Due to this controversy, the county government says it is starting to consider changing the law. But the first step should be for the county attorney to correct her legal opinion and step away from any role in the county ethics program.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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According to an article in the Star-Gazette yesterday, Tioga County has a law that prohibits citizens from making copies of officials' annual financial disclosure forms. They can't even photograph them, type the data into a computer, or dictate the data into a phone.
According to the article, the Tioga County Attorney "said it’s her position that the prohibition on duplicating the forms can be legally justified." She said the county can prohibit the public from making copies because of a portion of a now defunct state law that established a now defunct state commission. "Because Tioga County’s ethics law was originally enacted in 1990 — before the former state ethics law was repealed — [the county attorney] said its provisions are still valid."
According to the article, the executive director of the state Committee on Open Government disagreed, because the law the county attorney pointed to no longer exists.
A county attorney who defends an anti-transparency law, in a government ethics program of all places, that is clearly in contradiction of the state's freedom of information laws should have nothing to do with a government ethics program (she is now Statements Access Officer, so she is in charge of implementing the illegal rule and could have, at any time, declared it illegal; she also acts as counsel to the ethics board).
Due to this controversy, the county government says it is starting to consider changing the law. But the first step should be for the county attorney to correct her legal opinion and step away from any role in the county ethics program.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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Story Topics:
- Robert Wechsler's blog
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