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An Interest Discovery (sic)
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012
Robert Wechsler
It took a law student doing a summer job, but there is finally confirmation of what I
have been saying for a long time: normal people do not
understand the word "interest" as it is commonly used by lawyers in
the government ethics context. It was for this reason that I rarely
use the word "interest" in my book Local Government Ethics Programs.
According to an article in Monday's Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore ethics board hired a law student as an intern (a "mayoral fellow") this summer, and the intern was asked to review financial disclosure forms. She wrote a report on what she found.
According to the article, when asked if staffers had any financial interest in properties or entities that do business with the city, many respondents filled out the form incorrectly. "The word interest confused filers. Many expressed they did not receive any interest from their home."
All in all, the intern found that more than half of the mostly high-level city officials and employees required to fill out financial disclosure forms filled them out incorrectly or not at all.
What led to this review? According to the article, in February the Sun reported that disclosure forms are rarely reviewed, that, in fact, there had not been a comprehensive review of the forms in at least eight years.
Hopefully, the wake-up call will go beyond hiring a summer intern to do this review. Baltimore is too big a city to have an ethics board that is asleep at the wheel. The website not only does not include this valuable report, but contains the minutes of only three board meetings this year, the most recent in March. It's been nearly a year since an advisory opinion was placed online. And there is not much else on the ethics board's website. The ethics board needs to take a look at my Checklist of Ethics Commission Activities.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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According to an article in Monday's Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore ethics board hired a law student as an intern (a "mayoral fellow") this summer, and the intern was asked to review financial disclosure forms. She wrote a report on what she found.
According to the article, when asked if staffers had any financial interest in properties or entities that do business with the city, many respondents filled out the form incorrectly. "The word interest confused filers. Many expressed they did not receive any interest from their home."
All in all, the intern found that more than half of the mostly high-level city officials and employees required to fill out financial disclosure forms filled them out incorrectly or not at all.
What led to this review? According to the article, in February the Sun reported that disclosure forms are rarely reviewed, that, in fact, there had not been a comprehensive review of the forms in at least eight years.
Hopefully, the wake-up call will go beyond hiring a summer intern to do this review. Baltimore is too big a city to have an ethics board that is asleep at the wheel. The website not only does not include this valuable report, but contains the minutes of only three board meetings this year, the most recent in March. It's been nearly a year since an advisory opinion was placed online. And there is not much else on the ethics board's website. The ethics board needs to take a look at my Checklist of Ethics Commission Activities.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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