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Trenton's Ethics Environment in a Timeline
Thursday, July 19th, 2012
Robert Wechsler
According to an
article in the Times of Trenton yesterday, the FBI raided the
homes of Trenton's mayor, as well as the homes of his brother and a
major campaign contributor.
For those interested in government ethics, the best thing about the raid is the timeline that went up on the Times of Trenton's website this morning. The timeline provides a play-by-play of a poor ethics environment characterized by the worst sort of cronyism, retaliation against whistleblowers and others, anti-competitive-bidding schemes, participation in a matter involving the mayor's brother, campaign finance and public records violations, misuse of government property, clashes with the council and the state, and resignations galore. And this is just what the newspaper knows before the FBI has even investigated.
The timeline is like a mural of a poor local government ethics environment. It shows that various kinds of ethics violations are not isolated acts or matters, but rather parts of a whole. It also shows how many people are willing to go along with or contribute to a poor ethics environment, when it is to their personal advantage.
This is why an ethics commission should not be limited to dealing with one violation at a time. When there are reports of multiple acts of misconduct, an ethics commission should deal with the environment itself, calling the government's leaders before it, getting all the facts on the table, using the situations as teaching opportunities, and making it clear to them, their appointees, and the public that the next time the mayor or his appointees or supporters appear before the ethics commission without having sought (and followed) advice from the ethics officer, the penalties will be severe.
The misconduct described in the timeline should not have been allowed to continue for two years, until it required an FBI raid. It would have been far better if the matters had been consolidated and dealt with as ethics issues, preventing at least some of the worst misconduct.
See the blog post I wrote about a pay-to-play issue in Trenton a year and a half ago.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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For those interested in government ethics, the best thing about the raid is the timeline that went up on the Times of Trenton's website this morning. The timeline provides a play-by-play of a poor ethics environment characterized by the worst sort of cronyism, retaliation against whistleblowers and others, anti-competitive-bidding schemes, participation in a matter involving the mayor's brother, campaign finance and public records violations, misuse of government property, clashes with the council and the state, and resignations galore. And this is just what the newspaper knows before the FBI has even investigated.
The timeline is like a mural of a poor local government ethics environment. It shows that various kinds of ethics violations are not isolated acts or matters, but rather parts of a whole. It also shows how many people are willing to go along with or contribute to a poor ethics environment, when it is to their personal advantage.
This is why an ethics commission should not be limited to dealing with one violation at a time. When there are reports of multiple acts of misconduct, an ethics commission should deal with the environment itself, calling the government's leaders before it, getting all the facts on the table, using the situations as teaching opportunities, and making it clear to them, their appointees, and the public that the next time the mayor or his appointees or supporters appear before the ethics commission without having sought (and followed) advice from the ethics officer, the penalties will be severe.
The misconduct described in the timeline should not have been allowed to continue for two years, until it required an FBI raid. It would have been far better if the matters had been consolidated and dealt with as ethics issues, preventing at least some of the worst misconduct.
See the blog post I wrote about a pay-to-play issue in Trenton a year and a half ago.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
---
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Comments
donmc says:
Thu, 2012-07-19 10:58
Permalink
WOW - here's a highlight:
"Late last year, a parks department employee sued the mayor, claiming she was let go after refusing to dole out jobs for the mayor's friends, refusing to give federal grant money to people who didn't apply and inquiring about city funds she said were missing."
and the list goes on...
Outrageous.