Horse and Carriage, or Love and Marriage?

Anonymous

Fri, 11/05/2010 - 06:16

City Related

Do expertise and conflicts go together more like love and marriage, or
like horse and carriage? In other words, are they necessary or are they
outdated in this age of government ethics? 
 
Interested people making important
decisions that affect their livelihood was the American way for
most of our nation's history. Beginning with Watergate,
the public has moved past this horse and carriage approach, toward a more selfless public service
where people deal responsibly with conflicts and do their best not to
put themselves in situations where they have ongoing conflicts. Love
and marriage. 
 
Here are two instances that might shed some light on this.

A Harbor Commission 
According to <a href="http://easterniowagovernment.com/2010/11/02/cedar-rapids-ethics-board-w…; target="”_blank”">a
Source Media Group article this week</a>, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the
ethics board is considering what to do about a situation where a River
Recreation Commission recommends rates for the city’s boat harbor and
boat storage area when four of seven commission members lease space
there. Since there are only a couple hundred spaces for the whole city,
this clearly does not fit the class exception, whereby officials can
participate in matters when they are members of a large group, such as
seniors or homeowners. 
 
One issue raised is that the commission only recommends rates; it
doesn't set the rates. But this is different from, say, a lessors
association recommending rates, because the lessors association is
clearly an interested party. The commission is treated as an
independent body that is supposed to put the public interest ahead of the interest of
lessors. An independent body's recommendations will generally be
followed by those who have not researched the matter and lack the
expertise. Otherwise, why bother? 
 
A member of the river commission noted that the general public can apply
to lease a spot in the harbor, and therefore the lessors are simply
members of the general public who chose to do so. This is a specious
argument, because other members of the public, especially the great
majority without boats, have no interest whatsoever. 
 
The chair of the river commission told the ethics board that the
commission "had a difficult time keeping members other than those
affiliated with the city’s boat harbor." Why would anyone else be
interested in devoting their time to the commission? That's a good
question. Probably the best answer would be to turn the commission into
a lessors association, and have it make recommendations and negotiate
with government officials responsible for the harbor. 
 
The ethics board chair, a past member of the city's airport commission,
"said it sets fees for a limited number of hangars at the airport. At
the same time, it is at least possible that all members of the
commission could be pilots." In other words, this problem affects
multiple bodies in the city. 
 
The ethics board's conclusion seems very mature. It "decided to see
which other city commissions and boards might have similar potential
conflicts, and the board also decided to spell out, step-by-step, how a
commission recommendation might factor in the final decision to set
fees and rates." In other words, it decided to get more information and
to deal with the general issue rather than the specific matter. 
 
One solution might be to create an independent body that would oversee
the setting of all rates and fees. The body could work with interested
parties on the one hand, and government officials on the other, to come
up with rates and fees that would take into account various needs and
interests, without having any interests of its own. Citizens may not
want to serve on very specific boards, but might be happy to be on a
more policy- than detail-oriented body such as this. 
 
In other words, love and marriage is about working things out, finding
ways to coexist and preserve our values as best we can. We must put
behind us the horse and carriage of people setting their own rates and
fees, and the rationalizations that try to prevent local government
from moving into the modern era. They are history, and should be mocked
when they try to stick around in the 21st century. 
 
An Oil and Gas Advisory Board 
According <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/denton/flowermoun…; target="”_blank”">an
article this week in the Dallas Morning News</a>, there are conflict
issues regarding the Flower Mound Oil and Gas Advisory Board. I've
written two blog posts (<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/alternatives-allowing-conflicted-indi…;
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/fort-worth-council-mayor-and-city-att…;) on advisory boards with members from the
drilling industry. The posts include alternatives solutions to this problem. 
 
What interested me in this situation was how far the situation had to
go for conflicts to be recognized. In this case, what was required were
lawsuits by board members' companies against the city, and some
considered even that not to be a sufficient conflict. 
 
The board's chair said that one member whose company was suing the city
was "'able to
put her industry biases aside' and make outstanding contributions to
the board." One council member supported the member, saying that she
was not involved with the lawsuit. But another council
member said that
removing the member was not a reflection on her personally, but "was
necessary to preserve the integrity of the board and its mission." 
 
Defending people's integrity is another horse and carriage issue. If
your company is involved, you shouldn't be, except as a lobbyist or
member of an industry association. That says absolutely nothing about
you, except to the extent you are incapable of recognizing how your
participation looks to others. That's not an integrity issue, that's a
horse and carriage issue, a living in the past when oil and gas
companies cared nothing about how things looked, because they brought
wealth to the region. They had it wrong back then. The region brings
wealth to them. 
 
Robert Wechsler 
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics 
 
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Horse and Carriage, or Love and Marriage?

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