One of the most powerful lobbyists in the United States has come out strongly in favor of independent, effective local government ethics programs. The lobbyist is AARP. Here is a quote from p. 1-13 of the Government Integrity and Civic Engagement chapter [1] (notably, Chapter 1) of AARP's latest Policy Book:

Government at all levels should establish and adequately fund independent nonpartisan commissions to create and enforce ethics and lobbying regulations.

This appears to be a simple sentence, but it calls for a lot of things most local government ethics programs lack.

An AARP local ethics commission would be "independent," whereas most commissions are dependent on the mayor, council, and/or city or county attorney's office.

An AARP local ethics commission would be "adequately funded," whereas most commissions have no funding at all, and those in larger jurisdictions are inadequately funded.

An AARP local ethics commission would be "nonpartisan," whereas most commissions are bipartisan.

An AARP local ethics commission would write ethics rules, whereas in almost every city and county, ethics rules are written by the local or state legislative body.

And an AARP local ethics commission would enforce these ethics rules, whereas most commissions have no or limited enforcement powers.

In other words, this is probably the most radical statement on local government ethics ever to come from a lobbying organization. Thank you, AARP. This is the first time I have actually considered joining your organization.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research, City Ethics

203-230-2548