The Importance of Being Readable

One of the most serious problems with municipal ethics codes is their unreadability. Few of those who write them seem to consider the capabilities of the code's audience: municipal officials and employees without a legal education.

In 1998, the Securities and Exchange Commission insisted that documents intended to disclose information to the public should be written in plain English, and to help with the process, it put together a Plain English Handbook: How to Create Clear SEC Disclosure Documents (www.sec.gov/pdf/handbook.pdf). With a preface by Warren Buffett and an introduction by SEC Chair Arthur Levitt, the SEC clearly meant business. (Additional exercises can be found at http://www.wilbers.com/sec.htm.)

The municipal ethics world does not have an SEC, but it should be in a position to recognize that an unreadable ethics code is irresponsible. How can any of an ethics code's goals be attained if the code''s audience cannot understand it? An unreadable ethics code does not provide guidance, nor can it be upheld when violated by someone who honestly did not understand it or who dishonestly, but equally effectively, employs the defense of a lack of understanding. An unreadable ethics code also means that a short training course will have to focus on reading and interpreting it, rather than other, more important issues.

Some municipalities have put together a handbook to help people understand their ethics code. But handbooks are supplements to, not replacement for ethics codes, and they should be prepared even for ethics codes written in plain English. A handbook provides explanations and short case studies or examples of situations where ethics rules must be considered. San Antonio has a good handbook (supplementing a fairly readable code), which can be found on its excellent ethics webpage (http://www.sanantonio.gov/ecfl/index-ethics.asp?res=1024&ver=true), along with the code, forms, guides to filing an ethics complaint and requesting an advisory opinion, the Ethics Review Board's annual reports, information about ethics training, formal and advisory opinions, and separate handbooks concerning former officials and employees, gifts, and lobbyists.

Plain English is not sufficient to make an ethics code readable. The code's organization, the clarity of its terms, and the usefulness of its definitions are also important. For example, because the most technical portion of an ethics code -- its enforcement procedures -- is rarely of interest to most people, it should be placed at the end of the code, so that it does not bog readers down.

If we want municipal officials and employees to be responsible in their work, those who put together an ethics program have to be equally responsible by making their codes readable to non-professionals, and by supplementing their codes with handbooks and ethics training. An unreadable code is just for show, just so the town can say, "We care about ethics." An unreadable code is arguably worse than no code at all.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired
City Ethics, Inc.