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Ethics Commission E-Newsletters
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
Robert Wechsler
Government ethics e-newsletters are a good source of ideas, and something worth considering for your local government's ethics commission or ethics officer. Atlanta's
new
spring 2010 newsletter, Ethics Matters, is a good example of what such an e-newsletter can do.
Ethics Pledges
The first piece in the five-page newsletter is about the requirement for new and departing city officials and employees to sign an ethics pledge. Pledges might sound silly: what difference will they really make? But this attitude generally assumes there are good people who will do good anyway, and bad people who couldn't care less about a piece of paper. This is not a very astute view of human nature, nor is it what government ethics, or ethics pledges, are about.
Ethics pledges are a good way to focus people's attention on their possible conflicts of interest, which simply sending them a code will not do. One way ethics pledges do this is to personalize an ethics code. This is how one of the Atlanta ethics pledges is worded:
For departing officials and employees, the ethics pledge is a reminder about the city's revolving door provisions (Atlanta uses the term "cooling-off period"). Many people think ethics laws end when they leave public service. It is important to remind people that this isn't so.
Atlanta has different pledges for employees, elected officials, and volunteer officials.
Ethics Awards
The second piece in the newsletter is about awards given by the board of ethics to departments and boards for their success in filing financial disclosure statements.
Awards like this serve two functions. One, they provide an incentive for department and board officials to encourage or even require the filling out of disclosure statements. Internal incentives are far better than penalties from an ethics commission.
Two, awards show the positive side of government ethics. Too much of what is written in the government ethics field is about enforcement, about failures to comply and the penalties people get for it. It's more important to praise responsible conduct.
The Atlanta ethics board even holds a ceremony to give out the awards.
It's good to be able to have clear quantitative criteria for such awards, because officials will know exactly what to strive for. But less defined awards can also be helpful. Such awards, however, require nominations and explanations why a department, board, or individual should get an award for, say, responsible handling of conflicts or open discussion of ethical matters. This subject deserves its own blog post.
Other Topics
The Atlanta newsletter also includes a summary of a recent advisory opinion, with a link to the complete version; news about the ethics board; news about ethics training; and what everyone likes the most: a short hypothetical and three factoids.
If you want to subscribe to the Atlanta ethics e-newsletter, write [email protected] and ask to be put on the e-newsletter list.
The Value of Ethics Newsletters
Ethics newsletters keep government ethics in the minds of government officials and employees, an important part of ethics training. They are also a good way for an ethics commission and its staff to regularly consider what is most important to those they serve, and to keep in touch with them, at a very low cost.
Other E-Newsletters
It helps to have full-time staff, such as Atlanta's ethics officer, Ginny Looney, to put newsletters together. But an ethics commission subcommittee or member could equally well do a quarterly newsletter, with help from spouses and children, perhaps. Note that among the big cities and the states listed below is Newcastle County, Delaware.
Here are links to e-newsletters put out by the ethics commissions of other local government and of states that handle local government ethics.
Chicago
Miami-Dade County
Newcastle County (DE)
New York City
Philadelphia
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
---
Ethics Pledges
The first piece in the five-page newsletter is about the requirement for new and departing city officials and employees to sign an ethics pledge. Pledges might sound silly: what difference will they really make? But this attitude generally assumes there are good people who will do good anyway, and bad people who couldn't care less about a piece of paper. This is not a very astute view of human nature, nor is it what government ethics, or ethics pledges, are about.
Ethics pledges are a good way to focus people's attention on their possible conflicts of interest, which simply sending them a code will not do. One way ethics pledges do this is to personalize an ethics code. This is how one of the Atlanta ethics pledges is worded:
-
I will use public property, vehicles, equipment, labor, and services
only for official city business and not request or allow its use for
the private advantage of any individual or private entity.
For departing officials and employees, the ethics pledge is a reminder about the city's revolving door provisions (Atlanta uses the term "cooling-off period"). Many people think ethics laws end when they leave public service. It is important to remind people that this isn't so.
Atlanta has different pledges for employees, elected officials, and volunteer officials.
Ethics Awards
The second piece in the newsletter is about awards given by the board of ethics to departments and boards for their success in filing financial disclosure statements.
Awards like this serve two functions. One, they provide an incentive for department and board officials to encourage or even require the filling out of disclosure statements. Internal incentives are far better than penalties from an ethics commission.
Two, awards show the positive side of government ethics. Too much of what is written in the government ethics field is about enforcement, about failures to comply and the penalties people get for it. It's more important to praise responsible conduct.
The Atlanta ethics board even holds a ceremony to give out the awards.
It's good to be able to have clear quantitative criteria for such awards, because officials will know exactly what to strive for. But less defined awards can also be helpful. Such awards, however, require nominations and explanations why a department, board, or individual should get an award for, say, responsible handling of conflicts or open discussion of ethical matters. This subject deserves its own blog post.
Other Topics
The Atlanta newsletter also includes a summary of a recent advisory opinion, with a link to the complete version; news about the ethics board; news about ethics training; and what everyone likes the most: a short hypothetical and three factoids.
If you want to subscribe to the Atlanta ethics e-newsletter, write [email protected] and ask to be put on the e-newsletter list.
The Value of Ethics Newsletters
Ethics newsletters keep government ethics in the minds of government officials and employees, an important part of ethics training. They are also a good way for an ethics commission and its staff to regularly consider what is most important to those they serve, and to keep in touch with them, at a very low cost.
Other E-Newsletters
It helps to have full-time staff, such as Atlanta's ethics officer, Ginny Looney, to put newsletters together. But an ethics commission subcommittee or member could equally well do a quarterly newsletter, with help from spouses and children, perhaps. Note that among the big cities and the states listed below is Newcastle County, Delaware.
Here are links to e-newsletters put out by the ethics commissions of other local government and of states that handle local government ethics.
Chicago
Miami-Dade County
Newcastle County (DE)
New York City
Philadelphia
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
---
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