Too Conflicted to Sit on an Ethics Commission

It should be heartening to announce that the head of an important
good government organization has been appointed to the North
Carolina Ethics Commission. But sadly, it is not.<br>
<br>
Francis X. De Luca is the president of <a href="http://www.nccivitas.org/&quot; target="”_blank”">the Civitas Institute</a>, which
has taken strong stands for improving North Carolina's state ethics
program. He is, therefore, someone who should understand government
ethics and act to improve the program from within.<br>
<br>
But he is also the president of <a href="http://civitasaction.org/&quot; target="”_blank”">Civitas
Action</a>, a 501(c)(4) political organization that supports and
attacks candidates in North Carolina, the very individuals who will
seek advice from the EC and will come before it as complainants,
respondents, and witnesses. And he has run campaigns for and against other officials who are under the EC's jurisdiction.<br>
<br>

And, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/John_William_Pope_Civitas_Institut…; target="”_blank”">according
to sourcewatch.com</a>, both organizations are primarily funded by
North Carolina's Budget Director.<br>
<br>
If Mr. De Luca truly understands government ethics, he must see that
his decisions in quasi-judicial ethics proceedings will not be
considered unbiased. This will be especially true with respect to
EC-initiated actions. If he supports or opposes action with respect
to officials his organizations have supported or opposed, how would
this look?<br>
<br>
He should also see that his involvement in Civitas Action is
problematic in terms of the following restriction on EC members:<blockquote>

No member while
serving on the Commission [shall] Participate in
or contribute to the political campaign of any covered person or any
candidate
for a public office as a covered person over which the Commission
would have
jurisdiction or authority.</blockquote>

A lawyer may argue that De Luca would not be directly participating
in or contributing to a campaign, but rather indirectly and
independently, through his organizations, supporting or opposing
candidates and officials. But an EC member should look at the spirit
of this restriction and recognize that he should not run an
organization that supports or opposes candidates and officials.<br>
<br>
Also, if the Civitas Institute continues to discuss ethics matters
in North Carolina, which hat will De Luca be wearing, his EC hat or
his CI hat? Or will it stop discussing ethics matters during De
Luca's term in office? This would be a serious loss. But if it does
discuss ethics matters, think of how conflicted its writers,
reporting to an EC member, would be. A member of a commission
charged with ethics oversight should not also be the head of an
organization that provides ethics oversight and criticism of ethics
matters that should include criticism of the commission on which its
own president sits.<br>
<br>
An official who comes to his position with conflicts should disclose
the conflicts and say how he will handle them. This may not be the
law, but it is the responsible way to handle conflict situations.
Yet <a href="http://www.nccivitas.org/2013/civitas-chief-named-ethics-commission/&qu…; target="”_blank”">his
own institute's press release announcing his nomination</a> to the
EC says nothing about his conflicts.<br>
<br>
As it is, I think that Mr. De Luca's conflicts are such that they
can only be dealt with by his decision not to accept the nomination.
Even his resignation from the presidency of the two related
organizations would leave this political operative appearing too
biased for a position on the EC.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/09/27/the-follies-that-merritt-more-d…; target="”_blank”">a
NC Policy Watch blog post</a>, his predecessor on the EC had to
resign because he accepted a $312,000 personal services contract
with a state agency (he did not resign immediately, but only when questioned by the news media several months later) (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/ec-members-and-ethics-advice&quot; target="”_blank”">my blog post on this situation</a>). He should not be replaced with someone who already is conflicted. It
is in the best interests of the state ethics program, and of the
public, that the next nominee to the ethics commission be someone
without any government ties.<br>
<br>
In fact, this might be a good time to change the nomination process and
put it in the hands of people who are not under the EC's
jurisdiction (a best practice). This would be a good cause for the
Civitas Institute (it has been an important City Ethics cause, and it has become a national trend), but
this is not something the institute can push for when its president
has been selected by the old process. If De Luca turns down the
nomination, then the institute can push for the best practice and
show that it can do more with its president outside the ethics
program than within it.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
---