It's rare to find a newspaper article that truly appreciates the work a city ethics officer does. So I'm including the entire article below. It's from the Jacksonville Times-Union, and Jacksonville's ethics officer happens to be City Ethics President Carla Miller. Had it been anyone else, I would have run the article right away. But after a couple weeks' thought, I decided to run it as an example of what an ethics officer can do and how the word about the value of an ethics officer's work can get out through the news media. Carla's work is definitely worth emulating.

City's Ethics Officer Working to Head Off Potential Issues

Jacksonville ethics officer charting way in wide-open field

It's working; more people are asking advice in advance.

By Steve Patterson Wed, Dec 26, 2012 @ 7:04 pm

In November the Florida Commission on Ethics lawyers offered an opinion on Jacksonville Councilman Matt Schellenberg. Inwardly, Carla Miller cheered.

Miller, the city’s ethics director, didn’t whoop over the ruling, which carefully parsed whether a politician could buy a poker party at a charity auction if he had previously voted on a rezoning the poker room sought.

She celebrated because Schellenberg had asked.

“That’s what I’ve encouraged. If you have a question, give me a call,” said Miller, an attorney the Jacksonville Ethics Commission chose a year ago to head the office of ethics, compliance and oversight.

A mayoral appointee for more than a decade before, since last December Miller has defined a new role as the city’s first ethics officer whose post is independent of mayoral politics.

Part of that role has been stressing the chance to work through ethical issues before they become problems, rather than waiting for an action that could lead to a fine or other repercussions.

“It’s been a very big switch this year in that more people are asking me questions and more is being handled in advance,” Miller said.

“… That’s probably the biggest role of my office now, giving people advice on which way to go in advance.”

There have been a lot of roles.

Miller said she’ll ask ethics commissioners next month whether they want her to focus on select areas. She’s locked into the job for a three-year term unless the nine-member ethics commission votes to remove her “for cause,” which would mean publicly hashing out some way Miller had brought discredit to the post.

But for the first part of that term, the $75,000-a-year part-time job meant keeping a lot of balls in the air.

An ethics phone line Miller staffs has fielded 337 calls this year, all but about 30 coming after the City Council confirmed the commission appointment in March.

There were 18 formal complaints people filed to the commission, most already dismissed but a few still being processed through different stages of review. No one has faced discipline from the commission.

There were also 54 questions or requests for advice on topics like lobbying or political activity, city workers holding outside jobs, financial disclosure rules, city email and tickets to Jaguars games.

Schellenberg’s question was part of that list.

The first-term councilman went to an auction run by the Mandarin Rotary Club and paid $250 for a 25-person party at bestbet Jacksonville, a poker room in the Regency area.

The party’s face value was $500, and Schellenberg asked Miller in September whether state law required him to report the cut-rate purchase as a gift.

Getting the answer right mattered more because the year before, Schellenberg had voted (with 13 other council members) for a rezoning that allowed full liquor sales at the poker room, which some neighborhood figures had deeply opposed.

Miller forwarded the question to the Florida Commission on Ethics — it involved a state law — and told Schellenberg any questions the commission staff raised.

The commission lawyers concluded there was no ethics violation, as neither the poker room nor the Rotary controlled the auction outcome. But Schellenberg would have to report the difference between the auction price and the face price as a gift from the Rotary on his next gift disclosure. The state commission members weren’t certain the matter needed to be reported even as a gift and decided to discuss it further in January, but agreed there was no violation.

Being able to ask before it became a political headache helped, Schellenberg said.

“I think it’s great we have one person we can go to,” he said.

He said council members have asked Miller this year about rules for handling gift tickets to football games and to the Georgetown-Florida college basketball game held aboard an aircraft carrier during the city’s Week of Valor celebration.

Those subjects are pretty straightforward compared to a small but growing stack of topics where Miller has opened reviews on issues that spill across multiple agencies.

The city’s police and fire pension fund, facility management contracts and texting on city-owned cellphones are among about 15 subjects where Miller has asked questions she said an inspector general would normally pursue — if the city hadn’t closed its inspector general office in late 2011.

Miller has recruited volunteers — a retired FBI agent and a government contracting specialist — to help cover more ground.

She’s getting some accolades so far.

“The city could not have a better ethics officer than Carla Miller,” said Cole Cartledge, a government contracting lawyer and former city department director who helps Miller review procurement issues.

“She’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, but also incredibly diligent,” Cartledge said. “She does it in a professional and nice way, but she doesn’t back down when she sees things that are wrong.”