Process vs. Substance
The conclusion of <a href="http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090225/COLUMNIST/902250326" target="”_blank”">an
op-ed column</a> in today's Sarasota <span>Herald-Tribune</span>
about the mess in Venice that <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/652" target="”_blank”">I wrote about yesterday</a>
made me realize that I had not yet written about one of the most
important problems in government ethics: process vs. substance.<br>
<br>
A quick recap: this evening, the Venice council will be voting on the
settlement of a suit against the city and four council members (out of seven)
regarding council members' alleged use of private e-mails to discuss
city business.<br>
<br>
Here's what Robert Anderson, a former Venice council member and county
commissioner, wrote in the op-ed column:<br>
<br>
<div>[T]hose who support the agenda of the
offending council members are
rushing to support the terms of the settlement. And some of these
supporters are the same people that, in the past, were most critical of
any action taken by a previous board.<br>
</div>
<br>
Most of the council members are new, anti-development progressives who
pushed out some of the old guard. A lot of their supporters are also
supporters of good government.<br>
<br>
Bad government is often identified with corrupt relationships with
developers and contractors. But it has nothing to do with where you
stand on development. What it has to do with is not the substance of
policies, but the process, the means of getting there.<br>
<br>
Someone who stands up for progressives who break ethics or freedom of
information laws (assuming they believe in these) is confusing process
and substance. Or they are equating them, as in the line that sums this
idea up: "the ends justify the means." If you believe that the
ends justify the means, then you are in favor of bad government.<br>
<br>
If you are only against bad government when it is practiced by those
whose policies you disagree with, then you are not really interested in
good government issues, because they are solely about process.<br>
<br>
It is good when local government officials do not want to use their
positions to help themselves and their families, friends, and business
associates. But it is not good when local government officials break
ethics rules to help their causes, even when you believe they are in
the public interest.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
---</p>