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Ethics Training - Leadership and Responsibility
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
Robert Wechsler
Ethics training is a problem at the local level. It's expensive, and
there aren't many experienced local government ethics trainers around.
Online ethics training has recently become the answer, but even this is
difficult to get people to do. As I wrote a couple of years ago in a blog entry and a comment to
the City Ethics Model Code, many officials are cynical about it and
feel it's a waste of time.
How do you make sure officials and employees take whatever ethics course is being offered, in person or online? Some local governments fine people who don't take the course within an allotted time, but it's bad for morale to fine people for forgetting. Long Beach, CA decided to up the ante and make failure to take an ethics course by the end of the year (a course is required every two years under California law) a cause for automatic removal, according to an article in the Press-Telegram.
This penalty, combined with two reminders in December, led only 226 of 284 board members to watch the two-hour video (online or at city hall). And they were duly booted off their boards, to the consternation of all. Quorums became very difficult to obtain.
I think the focus, especially for board members whose government service is only a small part of their lives, should not be on penalties, but on leadership. Board chairs and administrators should be the focus of the effort to get everyone trained. They should be in touch with their board members regularly, and be held responsible for everyone getting their training done.
Administrator to the Democracy Fund board in New Haven, I was never even told when (or if) my board members were scheduled for training last year. With no one knowledgeable about or responsible for their attendance, most did not attend.
As with so much to do with a local government's ethics environment, this is much more a matter of leadership and responsibility than of enforcement.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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How do you make sure officials and employees take whatever ethics course is being offered, in person or online? Some local governments fine people who don't take the course within an allotted time, but it's bad for morale to fine people for forgetting. Long Beach, CA decided to up the ante and make failure to take an ethics course by the end of the year (a course is required every two years under California law) a cause for automatic removal, according to an article in the Press-Telegram.
This penalty, combined with two reminders in December, led only 226 of 284 board members to watch the two-hour video (online or at city hall). And they were duly booted off their boards, to the consternation of all. Quorums became very difficult to obtain.
I think the focus, especially for board members whose government service is only a small part of their lives, should not be on penalties, but on leadership. Board chairs and administrators should be the focus of the effort to get everyone trained. They should be in touch with their board members regularly, and be held responsible for everyone getting their training done.
Administrator to the Democracy Fund board in New Haven, I was never even told when (or if) my board members were scheduled for training last year. With no one knowledgeable about or responsible for their attendance, most did not attend.
As with so much to do with a local government's ethics environment, this is much more a matter of leadership and responsibility than of enforcement.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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