Fort Wayne Deserves a Far Better Ethics Program
If you're a city of a quarter million people with an ethics board that
“has not met in many years and ... is effectively non-existent,”
according to a council member who has proposed a new ethics ordinance,
what do you do?<br>
<br>
Not, I think, what <a href="http://www.cityoffortwayne.org/images/stories/clerk/Introduction_-_July…; target="”_blank”">the
proposed
ordinance</a> (p. 16ff) does, which is create a new ethics
board solely for council members, and consisting of two council
members, the city attorney, and two citizens of their choice.<br>
<br>
The current ethics system is based on <a href="http://www.cityoffortwayne.org/images/stories/finance/purchasing/CODE%2…; target="”_blank”">a
2001
executive order</a> made by a former mayor. According to <a href="http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100719/LOCAL/307199972/-1/LOCAL…; target="”_blank”">an
article
in Monday's Fort Wayne <i>Journal-Gazette</i></a>, the current mayor
had not even filed his financial disclosure form this year, until
alerted by the newspaper (an alert from the city attorney's office,
saying forms were due March 19, did not work, even though failure to
file is a Class D felony (which is itself ridiculous)). There's not an ethics page on the city website, and only one indirect link to the executive order.<br>
<br>
In short, the system is not functioning, it wasn't very good on paper
to begin with, and the government's leaders seem not to be very
interested in having an effective, all-encompassing ethics program.<br>
<br>
The council member's principal issue is a good one: recusal.
Currently, state criminal law requires council members to disclose
conflicts, but not to recuse themselves. The proposed ordinance
requires recusal.<br>
<br>
But the proposed ordinance is very limited. There is only one, very
limited gift provision, and the conflict provision is limited in how it
applies to business associates and others. There are no representation
or revolving door provisions, nor several others. And the language is
sometimes weak. For example, council members cannot "require" council
employees to be involved in political activity, but they can ask all
they want.<br>
<br>
The council should come up with a comprehensive ethics program that
includes all the principal ethics provisions, a truly independent
ethics commission, an ethics officer, ethics training, all three sorts
of disclosure, lobbying provisions, and whistleblower protection. A
city the size of Fort Wayne should have no less.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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