Law + Character Do Not = Ethics

According to a recent article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth's mayor, Mike Moncrief, made $633,000 last year from the oil and gas business. He also has an interest in several real estate developments. A committee, appointed by the mayor and council, will soon be making recommendations on rules for natural gas drilling and on fees that affect real estate development.
The city attorney says the mayor has no conflict of interest because no single source constitutes more than 10% of the mayor's income, and the mayor does not have an ownership interest in any of the companies involved.

The mayor says that everyone knows about his interests, and they must trust him to have elected him mayor.

Tom Smith, Texas director of the watchdog group Public Citizen, says that having known the mayor for 30 years and knowing that he's ethical, he recommends that the mayor recuse himself from voting on these issues due to the appearance of impropriety.

The ethics law in Fort Worth apparently says there is no conflict, and the city attorney is satisfied with that. The mayor is an ethical guy and he was elected by people who knew of his interests, so he feels he can be trusted to vote independently of his sizeable personal interests. At first blush, they both seem to have made good arguments.

But ethics is not just about laws -- ethics laws provide minimum requirements. And the electorate didn't specifically say they felt the mayor should be able to vote on issues that directly affect his personal business interests. Furthermore, a mayor should be an ethical leader, showing other officials how to act in situations such as this. He knows it's not an issue of personal character. And to the extent it is, there's no better way to show you're a man of high character than to recuse yourself when it looks as if you may be voting in your personal interest.

The city attorney has spoken on the law, the mayor has spoken on who he thinks he is, but Public Citizen's Smith is the only person who has approached the situation as an ethical issue. The lesson here is: Always suspect anyone who approaches an ethical issue purely in terms of law or in terms of character. Law and character are only two of many aspects that go into making ethical decisions.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics