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A New State Integrity Index Report
Friday, August 2nd, 2013
Robert Wechsler
Two weeks ago, the
Better Government Association-Alper Services Integrity Index was published, the first
since 2008. It grades each state's conflicts of interest, freedom of
information, open meetings, and whistleblower-protection laws.
As far as it goes, this is an excellent report. It sets forth best practices and shows how each state has fallen short. With 100% as following all best practices, the average state got a mark of 55%, the top state (Rhode Island) got a 70% and the bottom state (Montana) got a 28%.
My problem with this approach, just as with the report I did for Common Cause Connecticut back in 2004, when I graded the conflicts of interest laws of every Connecticut municipality, is that it is limited to laws. Laws are only part of the story. You can have the best laws on the book, and have no government ethics program whatsoever.
Effective enforcement, which is one of the criteria included in the Integrity Index, is one element that is required in addition to good laws. The other three most important elements of an ethics program are not included in the Index: training, advice, and an independent ethics commission. In fact, the only enforcement that is considered is enforcement of annual disclosure. This is important, but it says little about the quality of an ethics program or how it is perceived by the public.
On the basis of this report, I could not honestly say anything about the quality of a state's conflicts of interest program. I would feel better if it graded "Annual Disclosure" rather than "Conflicts of Interest." The title raises expectations far beyond what is provided.
Of course, the other issue for City Ethics is the fact that this index says nothing about state laws that apply to local officials. A state with a relatively good state ethics program may require nothing of local officials. Among the top 10 states with respect to conflicts of interest, some have better or worse conflicts of interest programs for local officials, and some have no program and little in the way of requirements for local governments to set up their own programs.
But the biggest problem is that the index supports the general misconception that government ethics is primarily about laws. Laws are important, but they're not what matters most, and they do not provide a valuable picture of an ethics program's quality, or even show whether there is a program at all.
What I would like to see in the next Integrity Index is more information about training, the availability and use of swift, independent advice, how independent and active ethics commissions are, and what resources they have. This requires much more work, but I think it's worth it.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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As far as it goes, this is an excellent report. It sets forth best practices and shows how each state has fallen short. With 100% as following all best practices, the average state got a mark of 55%, the top state (Rhode Island) got a 70% and the bottom state (Montana) got a 28%.
My problem with this approach, just as with the report I did for Common Cause Connecticut back in 2004, when I graded the conflicts of interest laws of every Connecticut municipality, is that it is limited to laws. Laws are only part of the story. You can have the best laws on the book, and have no government ethics program whatsoever.
Effective enforcement, which is one of the criteria included in the Integrity Index, is one element that is required in addition to good laws. The other three most important elements of an ethics program are not included in the Index: training, advice, and an independent ethics commission. In fact, the only enforcement that is considered is enforcement of annual disclosure. This is important, but it says little about the quality of an ethics program or how it is perceived by the public.
On the basis of this report, I could not honestly say anything about the quality of a state's conflicts of interest program. I would feel better if it graded "Annual Disclosure" rather than "Conflicts of Interest." The title raises expectations far beyond what is provided.
Of course, the other issue for City Ethics is the fact that this index says nothing about state laws that apply to local officials. A state with a relatively good state ethics program may require nothing of local officials. Among the top 10 states with respect to conflicts of interest, some have better or worse conflicts of interest programs for local officials, and some have no program and little in the way of requirements for local governments to set up their own programs.
But the biggest problem is that the index supports the general misconception that government ethics is primarily about laws. Laws are important, but they're not what matters most, and they do not provide a valuable picture of an ethics program's quality, or even show whether there is a program at all.
What I would like to see in the next Integrity Index is more information about training, the availability and use of swift, independent advice, how independent and active ethics commissions are, and what resources they have. This requires much more work, but I think it's worth it.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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Comments
cmiller says:
Fri, 2013-08-02 12:27
Permalink
This is an excellent post. The effectiveness of an ethics program should not be measured by number of papers filed, but in situations handled in advance with advice, training sessions that inspire and engage officials and employees and in increased citizen trust.
Carla Miller
President, City Ethics
Whitney Barazoto (not verified) says:
Fri, 2013-08-02 14:38
Permalink
I could not agree more. Is there an organization that does such a holistic evaluation of the laws as well as implementation - measuring enforcement, advice, training, citizen trust, and ethics commission independence? Or is there a measurement instrument that's been developed that can be utilized by a local organization to conduct such a review? I'd be first in line.
Whitney Barazoto
Executive Director
City of Oakland Public Ethics Commission
Robert Wechsler says:
Fri, 2013-08-02 19:38
Permalink
Whitney, there is something called an "ethics audit," which includes interviews with officials and employees and an examination and analysis of procedures, recordkeeping, transparency, and the like, but this is done of organizations, not of ethics programs. It is sometimes done to help know what may be needed for an ethics program, after a scandal. But the only audits I know of that involve ethics programs are focused on financial matters and, sometimes, on procedures.
There have been attempts, particularly in Europe, to measure the effects of government ethics programs, but these consist primarily of questionnaires. Such a study is only as good as (and can be strongly affected by) the questions asked (and the ones that are not asked). I don't think such questionnaires are too valuable, although they may provide some useful feedback. They could, however, be damaging due to how they are interpreted.
A big problem is, who determines what questions to ask and what is the goal of the questionnaire. An internally created questionnaire is going to focus on the ethics commission's priorities. But these may not be shared by those outside the commission, who may be more concerned with the numbers, such as complaints, findings of violations, the number of people who go to training classes and, especially, costs and savings (e.g., the savings from a contract rebid due to an ethics violation). Outsiders, especially elected officials, are likely to want to make an ethics program look in effective and too costly. An inside and an outside questionnaire could have little overlap.
As for citizen trust, it's hard to divide out what comes from an ethics program from the effects on citizen trust from other things.
If there is a worthwhile measurement instrument, I too would like to know about it, so I could share it with readers. I'll keep my eyes open.
cmiller says:
Sun, 2013-08-04 11:47
Permalink
Hello Whitney,
There are devices to measure the effectiveness of local ethics programs and audits based upon this have been done on municipal ethics programs. Contact me directly to discuss [email protected]
Carla