Regional Ethics Commissions via Interlocal Cooperation Agreements
On today's Palm Beach County (FL) Board of Commissioners <a href="http://www.pbcgov.com/PubInf/Agenda/agenda.pdf" target="”_blank”">agenda</a> is
approval of an Interlocal Agreement with the city of Lake Worth. The
agreement is one of many that will be entered into between cities and
towns in the county to give the county ethics commission jurisdiction
over the municipalities' ethics training, advice, disclosure, and
enforcement. The agreement is attached; see below.<br>
<br>
The reason that this relationship takes this particular form is that
Florida is one of many states that have an <a href="http://www.lawserver.com/law/state/florida/statutes/florida_statutes_16…; target="”_blank”">Interlocal
Cooperation Act</a> (passed in 1969) to provide a platform for local
governments to cooperate.<br>
<br>
Although many states have interlocal cooperation acts, very few ethics
commissions have been formed pursuant to interlocal cooperation
agreements. There is one in Northwest Indiana, the Shared Ethics
Advisory Commission, founded in 2005, consisting of five or so cities
and towns (the commission does not appear to have a website, but here
is its <a href="http://highlandindiana.org/maindocuments/EthicsCode.pdf" target="”_blank”">ethics
code</a>).<br>
<br>
There are three regional and ten county-cities ethics commissions in
Kentucky, all formed by interlocal cooperation agreements (see p. 24 of
a <a href="http://www.auditor.ky.gov/Public/Audit_Reports/Archive/2000LocalGovernm…; target="”_blank”">2000
auditor's report on ethics programs in Kentucky</a>). These were
created pursuant to a statute that allows for the use of interlocal
cooperation agreements to create such commissions (<a href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/KRS/065-00/003.PDF" target="”_blank”">KRS 65.003</a>, 1994).
More might have been formed since the 2000 report, but I couldn't find
anything online.<br>
<br>
The <a href="http://www.nkadd.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76&It…; target="”_blank”">Northern
Kentucky Regional Ethics Authority</a>, for instance, involves fourteen
cities and one county. Members pay $600 in the initial year, and $300
every year thereafter for services that include financial disclosure
collection, open records request responses, and advisory opinions.
Jurisdictions can be asked to reimburse the authority for any hearings
that "include extensive use of staff time or resources to investigate."<br>
<br>
I think county-cities and regional ethics programs are a good way to
save money, a good way to create a commission that is independent of
the politicians in any particular town or city, and a good way to be
able to afford at least one independent ethics officer to oversee
training and advice, and to be the staff member for the ethics
commission. Towns and smaller cities either cannot afford an
independent staff member, are unwilling to pay for one, or prefer to
let the town or city attorney, that is, a political appointee, act as
staff and adviser, so that the officials in power have better control
over the ethics process.<br>
<br>
If there is a clear way to set up regional ethics
programs, money can be saved, and the quality of the ethics program can be improved, why
are there so few? Because local politicians do not want to turn ethics
over to any independent body unless they are forced to, either by the
sort of scandals that hit Palm Beach County, or by a state government
that has the power to take ethics out of the hands of local governments.<br>
<br>
The NW Indiana EC is the work of a smart and ethically
knowledgeable fellow, Ed Charbonneau, who was, at the time, executive
director of the NW Indiana Local Government Academy at Indiana
University Northwest. The Kentucky county and regional ECs were created
pursuant to a state statute.<br>
<br>
County-cities and regional ethics programs should be a topic for
discussion by every local government that wants a good ethics program
at a far lower cost than they could provide themselves, and is willing
to give up control over this very sensitive area. If anyone knows of
any other county-cities or regional ethics programs, please let me know
via comment or e-mail.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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