Safra Working Papers

Appearances are very important in government ethics. A situation that has arisen with respect to a proposed state audit of the Palm Beach County ethics commission has created serious appearance problems.

An ethics bill in the District of Columbia, sponsored by council member Muriel Bowser, went quickly through committee and was passed by the council, with only one dissenting vote, on December 20 (the final committee bill can be found here). What's amazing about it is that, despite the speed with which it moved, Bowser's staff made many improvements to the bill in response to critiques from me and others.

Applicant disclosure is the form of disclosure that least often appears in municipal ethics codes, not because it is controversial, but because it is not even discussed (although forms of it might appear in other laws and regulations). Please share your experiences with applicant disclosure that appears in or outside of ethics codes, and your thoughts about its importance, and form, in ethics codes.

104. Disclosure by Applicants.

1.

The two best defenses against dealing responsibly with a conflict are that the local government attorney told me it was okay, and I didn't know there was a conflict. The first can be dealt with by getting the local government attorney out of the government ethics picture. But the second requires something few local government ethics codes require: applicant disclosure.

Some municipalities limit some provisions to certain officials, so that, for instance, employees do not have to go through the same level of annual disclosure as officials do, or only officials and employees dealing with contracts, development, zoning, etc. need file annual disclosure forms. This is the place to discuss different levels of application of an ethics code's provisions to different levels and types of official and employee.

Update: February 10, 2011 (see below)

Does the "broken windows" theory, as first stated in a 1982 Atlantic essay by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson, apply to government ethics? The theory says that, if small things like broken windows are ignored, people will think that no one cares and, therefore, they will break more windows and move on to more serious misconduct. It's about setting norms and sending signals.

Update: September 6, 2010 (see below)

For many local government employees, gratuities are the principal way in which an ethics code affects them, because many ethics code prohibit gratuities. But are they really a government ethics issue? In other words, does a government employee, say a sanitation worker, have a conflict or create an appearance of impropriety by accepting a tip from a citizen for whom he has done routine work?

A month ago, I wrote a blog post about the Broward County (FL) inspector general's recommendations for ethics reform. A principal recommendation was to require all local officials, who are under the county ethics program's jurisdiction, to seek ethics advice from an ethics officer rather than from their city attorneys.

The role of the city or county attorney in an ethics program continues to be a major bone of contention, despite the fact that government ethics professionals generally take the position that the city or county attorney should not be involved in an ethics program.

A "resign to run" law is an unusual sort of conflicts of interest law. It requires that before an elected official runs for a different office, she resign from her current office. Philadelphia's "resign to run" law is one of the most onerous ones. According to the Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia good government organization, other cities that have such laws, such as Phoenix and Dallas, also have term limits for council members. Philadelphia does not.

If anyone questions the value of advice regarding municipal ethics issues, look at these statistics from the Atlanta Ethics Office. 66% of ethics complaints filed in 2007 alleged use of city property. 3% of the requests for advice in 2007 involved use of city property. If only people would ask. At least, Atlanta has an Ethics Officer to ask. My guess is that people who want to make use of city property don’t want to be told they can’t. They know the answer, so they don’t ask.

In detailing aspirational ethics -- that is, ethical conduct that will not be enforced by the Ethics Commission -- this Model Code goes a step beyond a declaration of policy and purpose. It includes the full text of the American Society for Public Administration's aspirational ethics code.

According to an investigative article on Nashville's WTVF-TV site yesterday evening, a former property assessor had help from a developer in disposing of her home and buying one from the developer, and also undervalued nine of the developer's properties by a total of $9.5 million over three years.

From the NY Times See the original online publication here: (note: may require membership)
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB091FF734550C708EDDAF0894DE404482



NATIONAL DESK By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN (NYT) 859 words
Published: June 23, 2006

Happy Fifth Birthday, Atlanta Ethics Office! The Ethics Office has celebrated its birthday with a 40-page report on its first five years of existence. It is well worth looking at.

An ethics controversy involving the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) has led to the resignation of four of the seven members of the APS ethics commission, a failure to replace them, and a threat to the schools' accreditation status.

A city full of casinos has no need for an ethics board, right? Well, according to an article in yesterday's Press of Atlantic City, that's the decision the Atlantic City council made last week.

According to an article in the Denver Post last week,these are the words of Colorado's Secretary of State after the state ethics commission found him in violation of an ethics provision, on account of using state funds to attend the Republican national convention last year:

"As we said from the start, I've had grave concerns about this tribunal's ability to be fair and objective.

An excellent idea for a grass-roots campaign to get some control of corrupt government employees in India.

Gandhi smiles on anti-bribe scheme

Ashling O'Connor, Mumbai The Times 10 April 2007 IN the secret language of corruption in India, an official expecting a bribe will ask for Mahatma Gandhi to "smile" at him. The revered leader of the independence movement is on all denominations of rupee notes. With rampant dishonesty ingrained in the bureaucratic culture, an anti-corru