Political Use of Ethics Enforcement
Ethics complaints are often brought for purely political reasons, and
election time is the favorite time for bringing them.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/05/attorney_opinion_ma… article</a> in yesterday's <i>Flint Journal, </i>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.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/434">Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.</a>
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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!<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>