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Political Use of Ethics Enforcement
Saturday, May 10th, 2008
Robert Wechsler
Ethics complaints are often brought for purely political reasons, and
election time is the favorite time for bringing them.
According to an article in yesterday's Flint Journal, a Thetford Township Supervisor brought an ethics complaint before his own board against a township Trustee who is planning to run for his seat this year. The complaint raises a reasonable problem involving a property tax exemption, but it is clearly not a violation of the township's ethics code.
Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.
The interesting twist is that the Trustee is charging that the Supervisor's use of public funds to deal with an ethics complaint brought purely for political purposes, that is, for his personal gain, is a violation of the very same ethics provision he accused the Trustee of violating.
This is a good point. However, political purposes are generally not considered a form of personal gain, or politics would consist of little else than ethics proceedings. Our democratic system considers furthering one's political career not to create obligations that conflict with the obligations of one's government role, except to the extent of using government resources to campaign.
What the Supervisor did could be interpreted as using government resources to campaign against the Trustee, but bringing a matter before a township board is not actually an expenditure of public funds. Had an investigator been hired, it might have been a different story. Hopefully, the Trustee will not herself file a complaint, but settle for her victory and her shaming of the Supervisor.
This is, however, a good example of how an unwarranted, politicized use of ethics enforcement can backfire. Let anyone who wants to do this sort of thing beware!
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
According to an article in yesterday's Flint Journal, a Thetford Township Supervisor brought an ethics complaint before his own board against a township Trustee who is planning to run for his seat this year. The complaint raises a reasonable problem involving a property tax exemption, but it is clearly not a violation of the township's ethics code.
Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.
The interesting twist is that the Trustee is charging that the Supervisor's use of public funds to deal with an ethics complaint brought purely for political purposes, that is, for his personal gain, is a violation of the very same ethics provision he accused the Trustee of violating.
This is a good point. However, political purposes are generally not considered a form of personal gain, or politics would consist of little else than ethics proceedings. Our democratic system considers furthering one's political career not to create obligations that conflict with the obligations of one's government role, except to the extent of using government resources to campaign.
What the Supervisor did could be interpreted as using government resources to campaign against the Trustee, but bringing a matter before a township board is not actually an expenditure of public funds. Had an investigator been hired, it might have been a different story. Hopefully, the Trustee will not herself file a complaint, but settle for her victory and her shaming of the Supervisor.
This is, however, a good example of how an unwarranted, politicized use of ethics enforcement can backfire. Let anyone who wants to do this sort of thing beware!
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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