Mayor Resigns to Make an Ethics Point
Here's an interesting twist. The mayor of Watervliet, Michigan (pop.
1,900) resigned in protest after the city commission interviewed one of
its own members for the apparently paid position of city treasurer, according to <a href="http://heraldpalladium.com/articles/2010/10/26/local_news/2253525.txt&q…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the <i>Herald Palladium</i> on Tuesday</a>.<br>
<br>
The commission (six commissioners and the mayor, who votes only to
break ties) chose to interview one of its members after the city
attorney advised not to do so.<br>
<br>
The mayor wrote in his letter of resignation, <span>"I believe the
actions of the majority of commissioners to allow this situation to
develop is a grievous breach of the public trust, and that a
conflict-of-interest policy and an ethics policy need to be adopted."<br>
<br>
There were signs of favoritism, most especially giving the
commissioner the choice of where in the order she would like to be
interviewed, but nothing too significant. The real issue is whether a
commission should ever interview and vote on the hiring of one of its
members, even if they bend over backwards to make the selection process appear fair (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/720" target="”_blank”">an earlier
blog post</a> on this and a related issue).<br>
<br>
It's tougher in a small town like Watervliet not to have conflicts such
as this. And even if the commissioner were to have resigned from her
position, as the mayor seems to have thought she should do, there would
still be an appearance of favoritism if she got the job, and she would
still effectively be supervised by her fellow commissioners.<br>
<br>
This is a situation where an elected official should sacrifice the
opportunity to take a particular job. Jobs such as this do not require
that you live in town. There are other towns and other jobs to apply
for.<br>
<br>
But what is so unusual here is the stand taken by the mayor, choosing
to himself resign, to make a sacrifice himself, in order to make a
clear statement that the appearance of favoritism is wrong and that, of
all people, the highest elected officials in town should not be seen as
favoring their own member.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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