When Transparency Gets Sneaky

When a major newspaper's editorial on a city council's handling of an
important ethics issue begins with "Sneaky.
Real sneaky." it's something worth sharing with those interested in
local government ethics.<br>
<br>

The newspaper is the Jacksonville <i>Times-Union</i>, and <a href="http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2010-03-09/story/jacksonvill…; target="”_blank”">the
editorial</a> on a new bill to take the city's ethics commission and
ethics officer (City Ethics' own Carla Miller) out of the open meetings
equation in Jacksonville appears in today's issue.<br>
<br>
The editors are scathing about the council's attempt to undermine a
sunshine law written three years ago to deal with council open meetings
problems. "The legislation's message is clear: We want less training.
We want to handle our own compliance without any checks from people we
don't control."<br>
<br>
The ethics commission and ethics officer were neither consulted nor
even told about the new bill, even though members of the general
counsel's office (who wrote the bill) attended council committee
meetings set up expressly to deal with ethics reforms. In other words,
there was no transparency in the handling of a transparency bill. That
says it all.<br>
<br>
The editorial is especially critical of the general counsel's office:<br>
<ul>
[T]he General Counsel's Office is no watchdog for the public. In
practice, it has been a guard dog for protecting its clients - the City
Council in this case. As a grand jury report noted two years ago:
"General Counsel Rick Mullaney ... appears to view the General
Counsel's office strictly as a legal representative of the city and its
officials rather than as an institution that has a larger responsibility
to the residents of Jacksonville."<br>
</ul>
As I've written many times before, this is probably the single most
important problem in local government ethics:  local government
attorneys who believe they should represent the interests of
individuals rather than the public interest. Yes, they report to
individuals, but law in the ethics and transparency fields is all about
the public's interest in having their officials acting in the public
interest rather than in their own personal interests. The public
interest is in independent ethics advice and enforcement. A general
counsel's office that writes legislation to give the council (and
itself) control of transparency advice and enforcement is acting in the
personal interest of its perceived clients (and itself), not in the
public interest.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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