What's Wrong with This Picture?
The mayor of a city of 46,000 people announces that the city would
change its policy requiring annexation to obtain water and sewer
service, and then negotiates an agreement with a developer to provide
him with utilities. In the middle of the negotiations, the developer
gives the mayor's campaign a $10,000 contribution. An ethics
complaint is filed with the state ethics commission and, according to <a href="http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20100406/UPDATES01/100406024" target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's Newark (OH) <i>Advocate</i></a>, the complaint is dismissed
due to insufficient evidence of an ethics violation.<br>
<br>
The former mayor, now president of the city council, says, “Everything
I did was legal and reported openly. I’m an honest human being.”<br>
<br>
What's wrong with this picture is that $10,000 contribution. It was legal, certainly,
but how could anyone perceive such a large contribution in such a small
city to be anything but a payoff?<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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