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A News Miscellany
Monday, August 4th, 2008
Robert Wechsler
A miscellany of interesting conflict of interest stories that don't merit their own blog
entries:
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1. Here is a small news item from Franklin (WI) Now, that on its face is good news: an official going out of his way in response to a conflict of interest:
In any event, whenever a development official is married to a development professional, there is an appearance of impropriety. Everyone assumes that's why the official took the position.
2. Sometimes a conflict of interest is not the principal problem. According to an article in the Blue Ridge (NC) Times-News, a state auditor has found that there are potential conflicts on 17 county Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils. The example focused on in the article involves a council member who works for a company that gets funding from his council. But the auditor does not seem to have a problem with the fact that the council has 26 members, and counties have a hard time filling the membership (they've only found 13 people for the council in the article). 26 is way too big a number. It makes it hard for counties to say no to anyone who wants to be a member.
3. For a tragicomic look at how the government leaders (in and out of office) of a small town in eastern Arizona put personal interests and feelings ahead of the public interest, read this article from the Arizona Republic.
4. What happens in Daytona Beach, Florida after Spring Break? According to an article in the online-only Daytona Post, two of seven Daytona Beach city commission members voted on a cost-of-living increase for police and fire pensions even though they are retired fire fighters and will, therefore, benefit from the increase. No commission member objected to their participating and voting, nor did the city attorney, who was supposedly present.complex.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.
1. Here is a small news item from Franklin (WI) Now, that on its face is good news: an official going out of his way in response to a conflict of interest:
Ted Grintjes resigned July 30 as
chairman of the Franklin-Oak Creek Joint South 27th Street Steering
Committee, as well as from the Franklin Economic Development Commission
and the Franklin Community Development Authority.
Grintjes said he resigned because his wife, who is a real-estate agent, was approached recently by Franklin property owners with an interest in selling their property along South 27th Street.
He said he could have abstained on participation in matters relating to his wife's real-estate connections on 27th Street but he decided resignation would remove any possibility of a conflict of interest.
Grintjes had been chairman of the steering committee for about five years. He was a member of the EDC and a vice chairman of the CDA. All three positions he resigned from are voluntary.
The problem here is one of confidential information and contacts made
through public service (using one's position for personal benefit). The
chair of a local development committee has access to all sorts of
confidential information about development possibilities, and establishes relationships with the
people involved with them. Who is to say that this chair's wife did not
get involved in the deal due to this information or these contacts?
Resigning from three positions does no more than agreeing not to
participate in discussions or votes on the particular plan. But it does
go a good way toward creating the appearance of propriety. The question
is, is this appearance warranted? Sometimes, an excessive response to a
conflict of interest can itself be self-serving, one of those facts
that makes government ethics so complex.Grintjes said he resigned because his wife, who is a real-estate agent, was approached recently by Franklin property owners with an interest in selling their property along South 27th Street.
He said he could have abstained on participation in matters relating to his wife's real-estate connections on 27th Street but he decided resignation would remove any possibility of a conflict of interest.
Grintjes had been chairman of the steering committee for about five years. He was a member of the EDC and a vice chairman of the CDA. All three positions he resigned from are voluntary.
In any event, whenever a development official is married to a development professional, there is an appearance of impropriety. Everyone assumes that's why the official took the position.
2. Sometimes a conflict of interest is not the principal problem. According to an article in the Blue Ridge (NC) Times-News, a state auditor has found that there are potential conflicts on 17 county Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils. The example focused on in the article involves a council member who works for a company that gets funding from his council. But the auditor does not seem to have a problem with the fact that the council has 26 members, and counties have a hard time filling the membership (they've only found 13 people for the council in the article). 26 is way too big a number. It makes it hard for counties to say no to anyone who wants to be a member.
3. For a tragicomic look at how the government leaders (in and out of office) of a small town in eastern Arizona put personal interests and feelings ahead of the public interest, read this article from the Arizona Republic.
4. What happens in Daytona Beach, Florida after Spring Break? According to an article in the online-only Daytona Post, two of seven Daytona Beach city commission members voted on a cost-of-living increase for police and fire pensions even though they are retired fire fighters and will, therefore, benefit from the increase. No commission member objected to their participating and voting, nor did the city attorney, who was supposedly present.complex.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
---
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