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Ethics Racketeering?
Tuesday, January 7th, 2014
Robert Wechsler
When the criminal justice system finds that government officials are
involved in a conspiracy to pursue illegal conduct in an
environment of fear and intimidation, they bring racketeering
charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
Act (RICO). This is what happened with the Atlanta schools cheating
scandal. According to an
article in today's New York Times, six more educators pleaded
guilty to being part of the conspiracy, bringing the total to 17.
According to an
article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the original
charges were brought in March of this year against 35 educators. The
original investigation implicated at least 44 schools and 178
educators.
The same sort of environment exists at the center of ethical misconduct, but ethics programs have to be more creative in investigating and preventing it, and enforcing against it.
According to the Times article, "the investigation found that [the superintendent] and her administration 'emphasized test results and public praise to the exclusion of integrity and ethics.' The result, it said, was a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation that led to a conspiracy of silence." There was also a personal interest in going along, because educators at schools with good test results received bonuses.
The lawyer for one of the indicted principals is quoted as saying, “It’s more like Mouseketeering than racketeering.” This is how a lot of people feel about unhealthy ethics environments characterized by intimidation. They feel people are weak if they can't handle the pressures placed on them. They don't ask whether it is appropriate for high-level officials to misuse their office to put pressure on officials and employees to act unethically or illegally.
In the chapter in my book Local Government Ethics Programs on expanding ethics proceedings, I look at the ways in which ethics programs can creatively deal with unhealthy ethics environments. But it would be valuable to have language in an ethics code that expressly allows, even encourages, an ethics program to take on this sort of ethics environment by holding hearings to bring misconduct to light and thereby prevent it and, if necessary, by bringing charges against a number of officials at once.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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The same sort of environment exists at the center of ethical misconduct, but ethics programs have to be more creative in investigating and preventing it, and enforcing against it.
According to the Times article, "the investigation found that [the superintendent] and her administration 'emphasized test results and public praise to the exclusion of integrity and ethics.' The result, it said, was a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation that led to a conspiracy of silence." There was also a personal interest in going along, because educators at schools with good test results received bonuses.
The lawyer for one of the indicted principals is quoted as saying, “It’s more like Mouseketeering than racketeering.” This is how a lot of people feel about unhealthy ethics environments characterized by intimidation. They feel people are weak if they can't handle the pressures placed on them. They don't ask whether it is appropriate for high-level officials to misuse their office to put pressure on officials and employees to act unethically or illegally.
In the chapter in my book Local Government Ethics Programs on expanding ethics proceedings, I look at the ways in which ethics programs can creatively deal with unhealthy ethics environments. But it would be valuable to have language in an ethics code that expressly allows, even encourages, an ethics program to take on this sort of ethics environment by holding hearings to bring misconduct to light and thereby prevent it and, if necessary, by bringing charges against a number of officials at once.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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