Council Fiefdoms and Unethical Behavior
If you want to encourage unethical behavior, give individual officials
independent power over the sorts of decisions where people have the
greatest incentive to tempt officials, and officials are in the best position to enforce pay-to-play.<br>
<br>
I described a good example of this in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/810" target="”_blank”">a recent blog post</a> about
a Chicago alderman whose realtor wife did very well with companies
given zoning changes by the husband. According to <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/sbl…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's Dallas Morning News</a>, the same problem exists
in Dallas, and a former mayor, who unsuccessfully tried to change the practice, feels
that now is the time to get such an ethics reform passed, due to a
recent scandal (one aspect of the charges against a former council
member was that
he approved zoning to low-income housing developers who gave him
kickbacks). In fact, this is the first piece of advice
the former mayor is giving to her successor.<br>
<br>
According to the article, "single-member districts mean single-handed
control. Projects in a district live or die on the word of the council
member alone." The new mayor has proposed that every zoning case have
the signatures of three council members before it goes to the full
council.<br>
<br>
The former mayor said, "You can't root out all forms of corruption,
but the more
people involved in negotiations, the harder it becomes for any one of
them to do something unethical."<br>
<br>
But council members insist that they know their districts best. Yes,
and this makes them effective advocates for or against a zoning change,
but the worst people to actually make what appears to be an impartial
decision.<br>
<br>I don't think it's certain that getting the approval of other
council members will change things much, because they are likely to
support each other's recommendations, especially when it has nothing to
do with their districts. This is a problem that accompanies district
representation, which was actually forced on Dallas, not a choice,
according to <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/local/stories…; target="”_blank”">another
Morning News article</a>. District representation is good for
minorities and makes individuals accountable to a smaller community,
but it does create fiefdoms. And fiefdoms provide great opportunities
for unethical and criminal behavior.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
---</p>