Talk of Ethics Reform in Oakland and Sarasota County

An Oakland Ethics Reform Proposal
According to an article this week in the Mercury News, an Oakland, CA council member has proposed to more than triple the city ethics commission's staff, expand its oversight powers to include campaign finance and lobbying (currently handled by the city clerk), have its executive director report to the commission, and allow the commission to seek independent legal advice and to impose fines. The commission's decisions would be appealable only to a court. The additional funds might come partially from fees on local campaign committees. A copy of the proposal is attached; see below.

One of the exciting things about this proposal is that it was drafted by a Working Group of individuals in the community with ethics and other good government experience. The members include the program director of a campaign finance research organization, the co-chair of a local clean money group, the president of the local League of Women Voters, a past chair of the Oakland EC, a voting rights advocate, and a couple of board members of California Common Cause. It is a great and unusual thing to get so many people who are knowledgeable about and focused on these issues to work on such a proposal. The group even says that it used my free e-book Local Government Ethics Programs as a resource in its work.

A grand jury report was the impetus for the reforms being discussed (see my blog post on the report) . But despite the grand jury's recommendations and the expertise that went into the proposal, it's not clear whether many council members will support ethics reform.

Talk of Ethics Reform in Sarasota County
Good news from Sarasota County, FL. According to an article in the Herald-Tribune this week, after the county administrator fired the county's ethics coordinator and it appeared that the county commission might let the weak state ethics commission handle the county's ethics needs (see my blog post on this), the county's Council of Neighborhood Associations invited Dan Krassner, executive director of state watchdog Integrity Florida, to speak about promoting ethics. It is unusual for anyone to call in an outside expert for some straight talk about government ethics.

Other good news includes (1) the hiring of an inspector general by the county circuit court clerk and comptroller (one person), and (2) a candidate for a seat on the county’s Charter Review Board saying that "he is interested in changing the charter to create an ethics commission that would be independent of elected officials."

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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