Misinformation and the Lack of Ethics Training in Mississippi

Misinformation is rampant in local government ethics. And the less people understand it, the easier it is for the misinformation to be taken at face value.

According to an article in yesterday's Dispatch, in Columbus, a city of 24,000 in eastern Mississippi, one council member's response to a fist fight between the mayor and another council member was to propose an ethics code so that officials would treat each other and the public with respect.

The city attorney told the council that the substance of the proposed code is contained in the state's Ethics in Government Law, which applies to local officials and which he called "very comprehensive." I couldn't find a copy of the proposed code (Columbus council minutes online are seven months behind, which is inexcusable), but the state ethics law is far from comprehensive, and it certainly doesn't have civility provisions.

The state ethics commission, which has jurisdiction over ethics, public records, and the open meetings act, has a page of average annual statistics (there is no stated range of years from which these statistics are taken), and the numbers show limited activity. The worst number is the number of training sessions per year:  30 for the entire state. No wonder the Columbus council member doesn't appear to have known about the state ethics law.

Advisory Opinions Issued Per Year: 145
Complaints Processed Per Year: 118
Investigations Conducted Per Year: 33
Training Sessions Conducted Per Year: 30

There is no explanatory information on the state EC website, other than power point presentations, to educate local government officials. However, for lawyers who can read them, there are many excellent advisory opinions.

Due to misunderstanding, or misstatement, civility rules (which don't belong in ethics codes, but are appropriate for council rules of conduct) were not even considered in Columbus, and the door was pretty much closed on considering other improvements to the city's ethics environment. The city attorney should have told the council that in many states where local government ethics is handled at the state level, such as California and Florida, there are also many valuable ethics programs at the local level. One does not necessarily preclude the other.

Clearly, from the Columbus council's apparent lack of knowledge of the state ethics laws, a great deal more ethics training is needed. There is nothing preventing Mississippi local governments from taking on this task, at the very least.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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