Phoenix Mayor Forms Ethics Task Force
According to <a href="http://phoenix.gov/news/091012ethicsreviewtf.html" target="”_blank”">an
official press release</a>, yesterday the mayor of Phoenix
announced the formation of an Ethics Review Ad Hoc Task Force, with
eleven members appointed by the mayor, to be chaired by former
Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley and staffed by the city’s law
and human resources departments.<br>
<br>
The mayor is quoted as saying, “It has been more than a decade
since the City of Phoenix has considered or evaluated its ethics
rules and policies. It is essential to review these policies,
learn where we are strong and understand where we can improve.
Accountability and transparency are key to good city governance.”<br>
<br>
According to the press release, the task force has the following
three goals:<blockquote>
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the city’s ethics
standards with respect to receipt of gifts, familial conflicts,
financial conflicts and professional conflicts.<br>
<br>
Make recommendations about documenting, implementing and
enforcing ethics standards.<br>
<br>
Evaluate best practices and provide recommendations on how the
City of Phoenix can best offer a continual review of its ethics
standards.</blockquote>
It's always good to take a hard look at a local government ethics
program every few years, especially when a city or county lacks an
ethics commission, as Phoenix does.<br>
<br>
In fact, Phoenix lacks an ethics program. It has limited
ethics guidelines (see <a href="http://icma.org/Documents/Document/Document/4871" target="”_blank”">the
city's ethics handbook</a>); no ethics training, as far as I could
tell; ethics advice from either the city attorney's office or from a committee
consisting of the city attorney, the city auditor, and the city
manager; disclosure only of conflicts in certain situations; and
no enforcement process. In other words, there is a great deal of
improvement that can be done.<br>
<br>
The goals show that, not surprisingly, the mayor and whoever
helped his office draft the press release have a limited
understanding of government ethics. The task force need only have
one goal: to create an effective, comprehensive, independent
ethics program.<br>
<br>
Phoenix is one of the biggest American cities without a
government ethics program. It's great to see that it may be on its
way to creating one. I look forward to learning more about the
task force, including its members, its advisers, and its
deadlines.<br>
<br>
Romley appears to be a great person to have chairing an ethics
task force, since he was the prosecutor of the AzScam scandal of
the early 1990s, a big public corruption scandal. I hope that he
quickly distinguishes between the criminal prosecution of public
corruption and a government ethics program, which is based on
training, advice, and disclosure, and which enforces rules that
stop short of crime and, therefore, do not require the severe
penalties, the burdens of proof, or the procedures of the criminal
justice system.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
---