The ethics war in San Diego is heating up. It has escalated from elected officials pointing out problems they have with the city's ethics commission to the future existence of the EC. The latest battle presents an excellent window into the mindset of those who oppose government ethics, especially, in this case, the enforcement of campaign finance rules.

It's truly a joy when a newspaper columnist really gets government ethics. Jacksonville Times-Union's Ron Littlepage showed this yesterday in his column. He perfectly captures the circle formed by government ethics and lack of trust in government officials. His column responds directly and concisely to the usual problems officials have with independent ethics commissions. The column is so short, I'm going to share the whole thing:

Almost three years ago, I wrote a blog post about the scandal that rocked my town, North Haven, CT. Since then, one of the two arrested department heads, the finance director, was given accelerated rehabilitation (lenient probation) because he turned state's evidence. The other department head, and his wife, who was his assistant, spent years delaying trial, and then also asked for accelerated rehabilitation. They had been charged with embezzlement, larceny, forgery, and conspiracy.

According to an article in the North Haven Courier, the department head's attorney argued, "We had an analysis done that shows the Ierardis saved the town $207,000 by not claiming pensions for three years [this is before the arrests; they immediately retired after being arrested]. They continued to work and saved the town considerable money. We are not conceding that they did anything wrong. The amount they were alleged to have stolen is small potatoes by comparison."

Small potatoes, by the way, is $142,000, according to a forensic audit (although the amount in the charges was far less).

India and China have not only been the home of new varieties of entrepreneurialism. In these countries, creative individuals have also come up with novel approaches to dealing with local government corruption.

An expatriate Indian physics professor in the U.S. came up with the brilliant idea of a Zero-Rupee Note to hand out in situations where local officials expect or ask for bribes.

Cheryl Forchilli, chair of the Florida Commission on Ethics (which deals with local government ethics), wrote a must-read op-ed piece that appeared on the Florida Thinks blog yesterday.

Forchilli's piece begins with a nice simile:

If a sports car barreling down the interstate at 120 miles an hour passes a Florida Highway Patrol officer, we expect that officer to flip on the lights, stop the speeder, and make our roads safer.

It is a truism of government ethics that a sense of entitlement is an important cause of unethical conduct. People who feel entitled to the power they wield feel they have the right to deviate from ethical norms in ways others do not (see my blog post on this topic). Now there is research that supports this view.