Post-Employment Role Models

Government officials leaving office do not have to do just the
minimum necessary to help gain the public's trust. They can do a lot
more. And they can even make the rules they're following clear, so
that they suggest an alternative to others and provide guidance.<br>
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What is needed are role models. Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica wrote
about two possible role models in his New York Times column on
Thursday. One is Sheila Bair, former head of the FDIC who, in order
to prevent conflicts, was determined to take a job outside the
country. She felt that taking a job even with an institutional
investor or reform group in the U.S. would be problematic, because
she would be lobbying her former colleagues. When she gives a speech
to a bank overseen by the FDIC, she gives her fee to charity.<br>
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She took a job with a Spanish bank that, although it has an American
subsidiary, lets the subsidiary makes its own decisions.<br>
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The other possible role model is Mary Schapiro, former chair of the
SEC, who swore she would never lobby regulators on behalf of any
client. "We went through hell together for four years [during the
financial crisis] ... I never wanted to go back to the team that I
led through all of that to ask them for anything." Schapiro took a
job with a financial services consultant that does not lobby.
However, after nine months she decided to leave the firm, because,
as Eisinger put it, the firm "lives in a shadow kingdom between
banks and regulators, 'interpreting rules' in exchange for large
fees from the banks."<br>
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The principal problem with both Bair and Schapiro is that what they
are doing is largely personal- rather than public-oriented. Acting
for personal reasons can provide a role model, but only to those
with the same feelings. Government ethics is about more than
feelings.<br>
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These two officials also had both very high positions and a huge
amount of choice about their next move. Most officials have neither.
At the local level, however, there are different sorts of
opportunities. For instance, it's a lot easier to get a job with a
nearby town than with a foreign country. A council member who wants
to be a government attorney or run an agency can get a job with
another town or county, or with the state. A public works director can start a construction company that
does not seek contracts with the town she worked for, and yet do
good business based on the reputation she gained in her government
job.<br>
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Similarly, the child of a police
officer can get a job with another police department. The spouse of
a zoning board member can sell real estate in every town but his
own.
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And each of them can explain his decision, not as personal to him,
but as part of his public obligations, which go beyond what it
says in an ethics code. Each of them can be a role model for others
who will face the same decisions.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
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