Top Tallahassee Officials Oppose Ethics Advisory Panel Recommendations
Now that Tallahassee's mayor has opposed all of the recommendations
from a special ethics advisory panel (attached; see below),
according to <a href="http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20131120/NEWS/131120012/Raw-video-Ta…; target="”_blank”">an
article last week in the Tallahassee <i>Democrat</i></a>, it's about time
to look at those recommendations and what, it appears, is going to
happen to them.<br>
<br>
The mayor's strong opposition is surprising, because there is
nothing radical in the panel's recommendations. In fact, the
recommendations do not even include independent enforcement. The
principal goal of the recommendations is consolidation. They seek to
consolidate ethics provisions into one ethics code, and to
consolidate the ethics-related roles of various officials into one
position, which they call the City Ethics Officer/Advisor. They also
seek to require ethics training for elected and appointed officials,
increase ethics-related disclosure, and require a limited amount of
withdrawal from participation in matters where an official has an
interest.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20131121/POLITICSPOLICY/311210030/Ci…; target="”_blank”">Another
<i>Democrat</i> article</a> says that the advisory panel's recommendation
to appoint a separate ethics officer was rejected by the city
commission in favor of exploring the idea of making a current
official — the auditor or city attorney, for example — the ethics
officer (the city attorney has apparently been acting as an ethics officer, so this would involve only the formalization of the status quo, which is unacceptable for <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/files/lgep1-0%20-%20Robert%20Wechsler.htm#Gov…; target="”_blank”">reasons I explore at length in my book</a>). The advisory panel chair, a former president of the
American Bar Association, referred to the separate ethics officer as
the "bedrock" of the panel's recommendations. "If you don’t do it
you will take away the heart of this proposal. It will not have the
impact on the future of government and the community." She's right.<br>
<br>
A committee consisting of Tallahassee's city manager, city attorney,
auditor, and treasurer/clerk also (1) opposed fines for lobbyists
who fail to register or otherwise violate the lobbyist ordinance;
and (2) recommended the grandfathering in of current elected
officials until they run again (I've never seen this; it's shameful). And it was this committee that
recommended having one of them act as ethics officer. The
treasurer/clerk's logic for doing this was, "The moment they're
hired, they're inside the government. So our thought was, we have
people inside city government." What about expertise, time, and the
conflicts that attend oversight of oneself, one's appointing
authority, and one's colleagues?<br>
<br>
The mayor's reaction to the ethics advisory panel's recommendations
is even more disappointing. He noted that the panel was created two years
ago due to ethics allegations filed against him with the state ethics commission. “All of the lies
and false accusations and sloppy investigations by news reporters;
it’s really difficult for me to support any of the recommendations
of the ethics advisory panel. They’re based on a false and
misleading premise.”<br>
<br>
This is the logic of anger and self-pity. None of the panel's
allegations are based on "a false and misleading premise." They are
based on the premise that a city needs to have one ethics program
with one ethics code, rather than numerous uncoordinated,
unprofessional, conflicted pieces scattered here and there. The
ethics allegations of two years ago, whether true or false, were
only the impetus, as scandals usually are, to needed ethics reform.<br>
<br>
The commission's and appointed officials' reactions to the citizen panel's recommendations makes one wonder whether most elected
officials, and their appointees, are capable of drafting ethics
laws, because they see ethics programs as limiting them or possibly
jeopardizing their careers. It is difficult for many individuals to
give up control over this oversight role or to see the conflict
involved in having conflicts of interest dealt with by individuals
whose jobs are under the control of those they oversee.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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