Quote of the Day
<h4>I have abstained because some unnamed person tried to question my
integrity and silence my voice on this issue. So I was forced to ask
the Ethics Officer for an opinion, and she gave me one. She told me I
could participate in the debate and that I could actually vote on this
issue. But because we're dealing with politics, and, as Jim Maddox
always said, you can never take the p out of politics, I've got to
think and calculate down the road to see if someone would try to use my
vote against me. So to protect myself politically and betray my heart
personally, I have had to abstain.… I leave you with this quote.…
Benjamin Elijah Mays said, I would rather go to hell of my own volition
than stumble into heaven behind the pack of fools. That's my reason for
abstaining.</h4><br>
—A member of the Atlanta city council, showing how not to explain one's
choice not to vote where there is an appearance of impropriety. His
brother works at the city jail, and there was to be a vote regarding
whether to sell the jail to the county (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/making-gray-area-black-and-white" target="”_blank”">my
blog post</a> on this matter from April 2010). This was a gray area
matter, where the law did not require withdrawal (and the council
member did participate in the matter before abstaining).<br>
<br>
FYI, Jim Maddox was the longest-serving Atlanta council member when he retired in 2009. Benjamin Elijah Mays was president of Morehouse College from 1940 to 1967, and a mentor to Martin Luther King.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
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