Conflicts of Interest

While so many local governments don't take conflicts seriously enough to require recusal, some take conflicts too seriously, and overreact. This appears to be what happened in Elizabethtown (NY), according to an article in yesterday's Press-Republican.

Nepotism is often left out of ethics codes because it does not seem all that unethical. Another reason for leaving nepotism out is that it is so common, especially in the uniformed departments, that local government officials are afraid to touch it. When nepotism rules do appear, they often provide for grandfathering in current nepotism, and for waivers, even if waivers are not available for other ethics code violations.

See update below:
An issue that arises in many local governments involves campaign contributions from local government employees, which often appear to be coerced or required, that is, they appear to result from a misuse of office by elected officials. Often, it appears that the giving occurs because employees are concerned about keeping their jobs. This concern includes concern about retaliation as well as concern about what will happen if the candidate loses.

I don't like seeing conflicts of interest discussed improperly in the context of an election. Elections are a good time to educate the public about issues, but when government ethics is used for partisan purposes, it undermines both the public's understanding and their trust in elected officials.

It is common for mayors and council members to take volunteer positions on the boards of community nonprofits. Sometimes it's primarily honorific, but sometimes it shows a special commitment to a particular program or project, and sometimes it involves a leadership position. Such a position can create real or apparent conflicts of interest.

Rarely does someone make a comment to one of my blog posts that brings such a fresh look at a standard conflict of interest issue as the one made recently by Catherine Mullhaupt, Esq., Director of Member Information Services at the Michigan Townships Association.

How does a council deal with conflicts in a company town? My first response to this would be, are there still company towns? Well, certainly not as many as there used to be, but probably most of the ones that remain are college towns.

Here are three different recusal case studies:

Public Recusal Is Not Enough

Loyalty is a virtue that is out of place in government, because loyalty is a personal virtue, a virtue that involves one's own personal interest and that of the person one is loyal to.

Loyalty is a particularly difficult issue for local government attorneys, because loyalty is essentially the principal virtue for attorneys. Attorneys' conflicts of interest involve interests that get in the way of complete loyalty to a client.

Technicalities should play little role in discussions about local government ethics. But because there are ethics laws, people unashamedly talk about ethics technicalities. They see ethics laws as like any other law, not as minimal requirements that deserve more thinking about what's appropriate than about what's legal.