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Treating Institutional Problems as Institutional Problems
Saturday, December 3rd, 2011
Robert Wechsler
According to an
article in Parsippany (NJ) Life, a Parsippany school board
member filed an ethics complaint against himself with the state's
School Ethics Commission. Is this odd course of action the best way to bring transparency to the school board, an institutional rather than personal problem?
The school board member considers himself guilty of not following up on the rescission of the superintendent's contract, when it was discovered that the school board had given the superintendent a salary over the state limit. It turned out that the superintendent's salary was not, in fact, reduced.
Whether or not the board member's failure was actually a violation of the state ethics code, as the board member insists, but others deny, it certainly brought attention to the school board's lack of transparency, which is an ethics problem. Not only is a lack of transparency damaging to any government agency, but the failure to lower the salary jeopardized millions of dollars in state aid.
The article points out, however, that the board member "didn’t point a finger at anyone else who may have violated the ethics code on an even grander scale, but instead he took responsibility for his own actions." To the board member, government ethics is all about personal responsibility. "I’m not a political guy," he said. "I don’t know how to play that game. I can’t spin or deny. I ran on a platform of transparency and so when I dropped the ball, I held myself accountable. . . . If the commission suspends or censures me, I’ll take it and then come back to finish what I started."
Had the board member taken an institutional approach to transparency in his organization, he would have filed a complaint against the entire board, including himself, and against the superintendent for allowing the superintendent to be paid more than the legal salary and not insisting of complete transparency. It's great that this official was willing to hold himself accountable, but this is not the best way to bring about change. In fact, the board member's (as well as government ethics') focus on personal responsiblity rather than institutional responsibility is, to some extent, responsible for not dealing with ingrained problems such as lack of transparency. This is not a personal problem, but an institutional problem, and it should be approached as an institutional problem.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
203-859-1959
The school board member considers himself guilty of not following up on the rescission of the superintendent's contract, when it was discovered that the school board had given the superintendent a salary over the state limit. It turned out that the superintendent's salary was not, in fact, reduced.
Whether or not the board member's failure was actually a violation of the state ethics code, as the board member insists, but others deny, it certainly brought attention to the school board's lack of transparency, which is an ethics problem. Not only is a lack of transparency damaging to any government agency, but the failure to lower the salary jeopardized millions of dollars in state aid.
The article points out, however, that the board member "didn’t point a finger at anyone else who may have violated the ethics code on an even grander scale, but instead he took responsibility for his own actions." To the board member, government ethics is all about personal responsibility. "I’m not a political guy," he said. "I don’t know how to play that game. I can’t spin or deny. I ran on a platform of transparency and so when I dropped the ball, I held myself accountable. . . . If the commission suspends or censures me, I’ll take it and then come back to finish what I started."
Had the board member taken an institutional approach to transparency in his organization, he would have filed a complaint against the entire board, including himself, and against the superintendent for allowing the superintendent to be paid more than the legal salary and not insisting of complete transparency. It's great that this official was willing to hold himself accountable, but this is not the best way to bring about change. In fact, the board member's (as well as government ethics') focus on personal responsiblity rather than institutional responsibility is, to some extent, responsible for not dealing with ingrained problems such as lack of transparency. This is not a personal problem, but an institutional problem, and it should be approached as an institutional problem.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
203-859-1959
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