Ethics Reform Suggestions in Cumberland County (NJ): Transparency and an Odd EC Setup
Republican candidates in Cumberland County, in southern New Jersey
(pop. 150,000), are pushing for several ethics reforms, including some
fresh ideas.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cumberland/article_acc44e…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Press of Atlantic City</a> and <a href="http://www.nj.com/cumberland/index.ssf/2009/08/cumberland_county_republ…; target="”_blank”">an
article on nj.com</a>, the focus is on opening up public access to
information. Suggested transparency changes include posting more government records
online, including budget, audits,
contracts, and reports, as well as Open Public Records Act requests and
responses; allowing the
public to film or tape public meetings, and posting video recordings of
county meetings online; and posting agendas for
county meetings no later than three days prior to a meeting. These are
all great ideas.<br>
<br>
Just because there are state sunshine laws doesn't
mean that local governments can't make transparency requirements more specific or
more stringent. Public debate is dependent on access to information, and
today it is so easy and inexpensive to provide such access, there is no good reason not to. But the
same desire for working in the dark exists among those local government officials who either have
something to hide or don't want to be bothered by informed citizens.<br>
<br>
I don't think the candidates' other ethics reform suggestions are
quite so valuable. They want to create a County Ethics Advisory Board
consisting of mayors that, according to the nj.com article, would
"review any
new policies or revisions having to do with ethics, institute reviews
of areas in county government where ethics regulations may be necessary
and investigate conduct of any county official, officer or employee."<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20090820/NEWS01/90820012" target="”_blank”">an
article in the Daily Journal</a>, the candidates see this board as
"independent and autonomous," but it's hard to see mayors as a neutral
group investigating the conduct of their county (and party) colleagues.
Just because they're not county officials doesn't mean there would be
no conflicts in dealing with county ethics.<br>
<br>
But this is a fresh idea, and it would be interesting to see how such a
board actually worked.<br>
<br>
Other suggestions include forbidding county employees from appointments
to independent
authority boards (a good idea, if officials are also included) and
giving local firms first dibs on legal, architectural,
and other professional contracts, which is not an ethics reform at all.
In fact, it skews contracts toward exactly those firms most likely to
be favored already, costing citizens more and causing an appearance of
improper favoritism toward campaign contributors.<br>
<br>
It's no coincidence that there are no Republicans on the county board.
It is usually those out of power who seek to open government up, at
least when there isn't a scandal.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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