The Cost of Low-Quality Ethics Laws

The mayor of Baltimore is on trial for stealing $1,500 in gift cards,
allegedly intended for poor Baltimore residents. A <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bal-dixonletter…; target="”_blank”">letter
to the editor</a> of the Baltimore <i>Sun</i> proposes a better approach
than a trial costing hundreds of thousands of dollars:<br>
<br>

<ul>... It is a shame that the people who
really needed the gift card money,
especially in this depressed economy, will not see any of the hundreds
of thousands of dollars being spent on this trial -- not even $1,500.<br>
<br>
Could not some other resolution to the gift card problem have been
considered, like a public apology for the so-called misunderstanding,
and all parties involved contribute 10 times the $1,500 to the families
who really could use the gifts for the coming holiday season?<br>
<br>
John J. Heyn, Baltimore<br>
</ul>
<br>
Fifteen hundred dollars is hardly de minimis, but it's also not worth a
full jury trial. But the trial is not about $1,500. It's about the
mayor's future.<br>
<br>
If not for the city's ethics law, crafted partially by the current
mayor when she was council president, which makes it a crime to accept
gifts from people doing business with city, the matter would have been
handled long ago by the city's ethics board at a minimal cost.<br>
<br>
But a criminal conviction would mean the mayor has to go, so instead of
reaching a reasonable settlement with the ethics board, or a creative
approach as suggested in the letter to the editor, the mayor is
fighting for her life.<br>
<br>
The quality of ethics laws does matter. If they are too weak, they are
ineffective, and politics as usual reigns. If they are too unforgiving,
they turn molehills into mountains, and enforcement requires a tenacity
and waste of government resources rarely seen outside politics.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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