A Proposal to Make New York City's Conflicts of Interest Board More Independent

The ethics commission for the largest American city, and the only one with a truly appropriate title — New York City's Conflicts of Interest Board — is appointed by the city's extremely strong mayor, with council approval.

If this old and highly respected EC were to be made independent of the administration it oversees, it would send an important message to the rest of the country's local governments.

In a Huffington Post post yesterday, Steven Cohen, executive director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and co-author of The Effective Public Manager (4th Ed.), called for bringing the COIB into the city's Public Advocate's office.

The Public Advocate is supposed to be the city's ombudsman and general watchdog, but Cohen argues that it is weak and lacking in resources and clear goals. The COIB not only has resources, but it has clear rules and clear goals.

Cohen argues that placing the COIB and the Independent Budget Office in the independently elected Public Advocate's office would give it the power and resources to provide meaningful oversight. It would also make the COIB more independent.

However, I think it would still be best for the COIB's independence, and appearance of independence, if its members were nominated not by the mayor or the public advocate, but by representatives of community organizations that have no direct relationship with the city's government.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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