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A Miscellany
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Robert Wechsler
An Active EC Is a Good Thing
Local officials often say that because there are no complaints to or advisory opinions by their ethics commissions, their town or city government does not have ethics problems. Actually, it's the other way around. Local governments with active ethics commissions, especially dealing with advisory opinions, are more likely to have healthy ethical environments. It shows that people trust the ethics commission, it shows that people are thinking about ethics issues, and it supplies ongoing instruction to officials and employees in the various issues dealt with, assuming that there is transparency in the ethics process.
In fact, the less transparency, the less trust, and the less use of the ethics commission. It becomes a vicious circle that might appear like a lack of ethics problems, but is more likely to reflect a poor ethical environment.
These thoughts arose from reading about a town not far from me, Old Saybrook (CT, about 11,000 pop), which has three matters currently before its ethics commission. A New London Day article describes the matters, showing that there is transparency in the town's ethics program. All three matters appear legitimate. There is an interesting dual role issue, where the town's chief executive also chairs a state trash authority that has a contract with the town; a board of finance member doing business with the town; and a harbor management commission member voting on an issue directly relating to his own mooring. This old town (founded in 1635) is keeping up-to-date in terms of government ethics.
May Ballot Fatigue Be Deadly to Ethics Reform?
Just what local government ethics reform needs is a new disease! According to the Palm Beach Politics blog on the Sun-Sentinel site, the Palm Beach County ethics reform referendum (see my blog post) will be the penultimate item on page 4 of a 4-page ballot in the county that made the hanging chad famous.
"What we are afraid of is people are going to get ballot fatigue and just not get to it,” David Baker of the Palm Beach County Ethics Initiative is quoted as saying.
Let's hope the disease of ballot fatigue isn't deadly to ethics reform. But at the very least, this is a good example of local government ethics being treated as the caboose of politics.
Ethics Code Violations as the Basis for a Crime in New York State
A decision of New York State's appellate division, People v. Gordon, determined that the crime of receiving reward for official misconduct may be predicated on violation of the state's ethics code. In other words, a violation of the code is "official misconduct," because the code imposes a mandatory rather than advisory duty of conduct on state legislators.
The court compared this situation to an earlier case in which it was found that a violation of the Rules of Judicial Conduct could be the basis for the crime of reward for official misconduct.
Thanks to Patty's Salkin's Law of the Land blog for pointing out this decision.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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Local officials often say that because there are no complaints to or advisory opinions by their ethics commissions, their town or city government does not have ethics problems. Actually, it's the other way around. Local governments with active ethics commissions, especially dealing with advisory opinions, are more likely to have healthy ethical environments. It shows that people trust the ethics commission, it shows that people are thinking about ethics issues, and it supplies ongoing instruction to officials and employees in the various issues dealt with, assuming that there is transparency in the ethics process.
In fact, the less transparency, the less trust, and the less use of the ethics commission. It becomes a vicious circle that might appear like a lack of ethics problems, but is more likely to reflect a poor ethical environment.
These thoughts arose from reading about a town not far from me, Old Saybrook (CT, about 11,000 pop), which has three matters currently before its ethics commission. A New London Day article describes the matters, showing that there is transparency in the town's ethics program. All three matters appear legitimate. There is an interesting dual role issue, where the town's chief executive also chairs a state trash authority that has a contract with the town; a board of finance member doing business with the town; and a harbor management commission member voting on an issue directly relating to his own mooring. This old town (founded in 1635) is keeping up-to-date in terms of government ethics.
May Ballot Fatigue Be Deadly to Ethics Reform?
Just what local government ethics reform needs is a new disease! According to the Palm Beach Politics blog on the Sun-Sentinel site, the Palm Beach County ethics reform referendum (see my blog post) will be the penultimate item on page 4 of a 4-page ballot in the county that made the hanging chad famous.
"What we are afraid of is people are going to get ballot fatigue and just not get to it,” David Baker of the Palm Beach County Ethics Initiative is quoted as saying.
Let's hope the disease of ballot fatigue isn't deadly to ethics reform. But at the very least, this is a good example of local government ethics being treated as the caboose of politics.
Ethics Code Violations as the Basis for a Crime in New York State
A decision of New York State's appellate division, People v. Gordon, determined that the crime of receiving reward for official misconduct may be predicated on violation of the state's ethics code. In other words, a violation of the code is "official misconduct," because the code imposes a mandatory rather than advisory duty of conduct on state legislators.
The court compared this situation to an earlier case in which it was found that a violation of the Rules of Judicial Conduct could be the basis for the crime of reward for official misconduct.
Thanks to Patty's Salkin's Law of the Land blog for pointing out this decision.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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