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Phoenix Mayor Forms Ethics Task Force
Tuesday, September 11th, 2012
Robert Wechsler
According to an
official press release, yesterday the mayor of Phoenix
announced the formation of an Ethics Review Ad Hoc Task Force, with
eleven members appointed by the mayor, to be chaired by former
Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley and staffed by the city’s law
and human resources departments.
The mayor is quoted as saying, “It has been more than a decade since the City of Phoenix has considered or evaluated its ethics rules and policies. It is essential to review these policies, learn where we are strong and understand where we can improve. Accountability and transparency are key to good city governance.”
According to the press release, the task force has the following three goals:
In fact, Phoenix lacks an ethics program. It has limited ethics guidelines (see the city's ethics handbook); no ethics training, as far as I could tell; ethics advice from either the city attorney's office or from a committee consisting of the city attorney, the city auditor, and the city manager; disclosure only of conflicts in certain situations; and no enforcement process. In other words, there is a great deal of improvement that can be done.
The goals show that, not surprisingly, the mayor and whoever helped his office draft the press release have a limited understanding of government ethics. The task force need only have one goal: to create an effective, comprehensive, independent ethics program.
Phoenix is one of the biggest American cities without a government ethics program. It's great to see that it may be on its way to creating one. I look forward to learning more about the task force, including its members, its advisers, and its deadlines.
Romley appears to be a great person to have chairing an ethics task force, since he was the prosecutor of the AzScam scandal of the early 1990s, a big public corruption scandal. I hope that he quickly distinguishes between the criminal prosecution of public corruption and a government ethics program, which is based on training, advice, and disclosure, and which enforces rules that stop short of crime and, therefore, do not require the severe penalties, the burdens of proof, or the procedures of the criminal justice system.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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The mayor is quoted as saying, “It has been more than a decade since the City of Phoenix has considered or evaluated its ethics rules and policies. It is essential to review these policies, learn where we are strong and understand where we can improve. Accountability and transparency are key to good city governance.”
According to the press release, the task force has the following three goals:
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the city’s ethics standards with respect to receipt of gifts, familial conflicts, financial conflicts and professional conflicts.It's always good to take a hard look at a local government ethics program every few years, especially when a city or county lacks an ethics commission, as Phoenix does.
Make recommendations about documenting, implementing and enforcing ethics standards.
Evaluate best practices and provide recommendations on how the City of Phoenix can best offer a continual review of its ethics standards.
In fact, Phoenix lacks an ethics program. It has limited ethics guidelines (see the city's ethics handbook); no ethics training, as far as I could tell; ethics advice from either the city attorney's office or from a committee consisting of the city attorney, the city auditor, and the city manager; disclosure only of conflicts in certain situations; and no enforcement process. In other words, there is a great deal of improvement that can be done.
The goals show that, not surprisingly, the mayor and whoever helped his office draft the press release have a limited understanding of government ethics. The task force need only have one goal: to create an effective, comprehensive, independent ethics program.
Phoenix is one of the biggest American cities without a government ethics program. It's great to see that it may be on its way to creating one. I look forward to learning more about the task force, including its members, its advisers, and its deadlines.
Romley appears to be a great person to have chairing an ethics task force, since he was the prosecutor of the AzScam scandal of the early 1990s, a big public corruption scandal. I hope that he quickly distinguishes between the criminal prosecution of public corruption and a government ethics program, which is based on training, advice, and disclosure, and which enforces rules that stop short of crime and, therefore, do not require the severe penalties, the burdens of proof, or the procedures of the criminal justice system.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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