Ethics Reform Aimed at Political Opponents

Ethics reform aimed at political opponents is a good way to undermine the whole idea of ethics reform. This is what is happening in San Jose.

San Jose starts off with an odd ethics program. Title 12: Ethics Provisions does not even have a conflict of interest provision, nor does the city have an ethics commission. It is primarily a campaign finance and lobbying law, with a gift provision and a revolving door provision. It is enforced by an Election Commission. Ethics matters are primarily left to the state.

Every two years, the mayor reviews the ethics laws and suggests reforms. The mayor made his suggestions this week, and the council members associated with labor hit the ceiling. Here are the suggestions, according to the mayor's office, as included in an article in yesterday's San Jose Mercury-News:

1. Avoid conflicts of interests arising from family relationships.
2. Close a loophole in lobbyist registration and disclosure.
3. Require all decision-making boards and commissions to meet at City Hall.
4. Avoid "policy by surprise" at council committees by deferring action on last-minute proposals.
5. Allow laid-off employees to seek a waiver of the prohibition on "revolving door—employment with the city.
6. Improve timely disclosure of council member calendars and those of top officials.
7. Debate requests to drop or defer agenda items at their scheduled time, rather than at the start of the meeting.
8. Limit anonymous complaints to the Elections Comission.
9. Ensure that arbitration hearings over police and fire contracts are open to the public.

Out of context, these reforms seem reasonable. But they arise from very specific contexts, most of which involve the mayor's opponents. For example, the background to suggestion #1 is that a council member has a husband who lobbies for a local union. It's odd to include a conflict provision for families in an ethics law that has no conflict provision. But the article says that currently only financial interests must be disclosed; I assume this is a reference to state law.

The loophole referred to in suggestion #2 is one that does not require those who lobby for nonprofits to register as lobbyist. A prominent pro-labor lobbyist is policy director for Working Partnerships USA. This apparently led to the desire to close a loophole that is not otherwise a problem, but of course could be if, as has been suggested, the Chamber of Commerce were to form a nonprofit arm.

The next several suggestions involve transparency and council procedures. But suggestion #8 is very specific to one event, which again involved a pro-labor council member, according to a Mercury-News editorial. This year an anonymous complaint was filed against a former mayor on lobbying charges. Although anonymous, the complaint was sent to the news media and others. The current mayor's solution is to greatly limit anonymous complaints, which is certainly not the best way to deal with this problem. In fact, there is no reason to allow anonymous complaints at all; it is highly unusual to allow them. It is better to allow anonymous tips, and let the enforcement agency investigate and file its own complaint.

The fact is that no one can prevent people from publicizing complaints they file, or from sending a press release containing allegations even when no complaint is formally filed. The mayor's suggestion simply makes it harder for those afraid of retaliation to report wrongdoing. It throws out a baby sitting in only a few cups of bathwater.

If the mayor is so concerned with the ethics process being used for political purposes, why has he done this with his ethics reform proposals? If he truly cares about ethics reform, he should look at all that has been left out of the San Jose ethics program, determine whether conflicts of interest are being adequately handled by the state and the council, and lead a discussion on what is the best ethics program for the city.

Piecemeal responses to situations involving political opponents is not the way to increase public trust in government.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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