The Selection of Ethics Commission Members by Community Organizations

Nothing is more important to an ethics program than ensuring that an ethics commission is seen as independent, and not a pawn of politicians. People will not trust the advisory opinions and enforcement decisions of an ethics commission consisting of people with even presumed ties to politicians. Since trust is the principal goal of an ethics program, this is unacceptable.

The City Ethics Model Code recommends, as an alternative to the nomination of ethics commission members by local government executives or legislative bodies, having nonpartisan community organizations nominate members instead. I give as an example Atlanta, which has each of the following organizations select one member:

League of Women Voters
Chamber of Commerce
Planning Advisory Board
The Six Major Universities
City Bar Association
Gate City Bar Association
Business League

Milwaukee does it the same way. Seven organizations select one member each:

Public Policy Forum
Milwaukee Branch – N.A.A.C.P.
Milwaukee Labor Council
Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee
Metro. Milwaukee Association of Commerce
Milwaukee Bar Association
League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County

Members of the Miami-Dade County Ethics Commission are selected as follows:

The Chief Judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit appoints two members.
The Director of Florida International University’s Center for Labor Research and Studies appoints a member.
The Miami-Dade League of Cities appoints a member.
The Dean of the University of Miami School of Law and the Dean of St. Thomas University School of Law share in the appointment of one member

Members of the Palm Beach County Ethics Commission will be selected individually by:

Palm Beach County Association of Chiefs of Police
minority attorney associations
president of Florida Atlantic University
county chapter of the Florida Institute of CPAs
county League of Cities (selecting a former elected official)

The county's inspector general will be selected by the EC plus representatives of the State Attorney and Public Defender offices.

Louisiana's ethics commission is selected from a list of candidates prepared by presidents of the state's private colleges.

A more informal alternative is used in Corpus Christi. Community organizations are asked to recommend people for the ethics commission, but anyone can send his or her name in. This alternative still allows politicians to choose ethics commission members, but it is better than nothing.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research, City Ethics
rwechsler@cityethics.org
203-230-2548