Bullying an Ethics Board Pays Off in Sioux Falls
It staggers the imagination how combative local government officials
can sometimes be with respect to ethics commissions. <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/self-interest-and-transparency-local-…; target="”_blank”">A
year ago, I wrote</a> about a former Sioux Falls (SD) council member,
Kermit Staggers, who attacked complaints filed by the city's ethics
board as "frivolous" and attacked its procedures when it gave him two
private, that is confidential, reprimands.<br>
<br>
But this wasn't nearly enough. He had to show them that they couldn't
get away with reprimanding him. According to <a href="http://www.argusleader.com/article/20110422/NEWS/104220315/Staggers-eff…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the <i>Argus Leader</i></a> this April, he filed a complaint with
the state's open meetings commission, ending in a reprimand of the
ethics board for reaching a decision during an executive session (the
decision was to dismiss another complaint against him).<br>
<br>
But this too wasn't enough for Kermit Staggers. He wanted the open
meetings commission to reprimand each ethics board member individually,
as well as the assistant city attorney who had provided advice about
the meeting. The commission refused to do this, although one of its
members supported the attempt.<br>
<br>
When Staggers couldn't bully the ethics board any more at the state level, he focused on the
local. He sought to have the ethics board retract its reprimands,
calling them "a piece of junk." And according to <a href="http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011106160324" target="”_blank”">an
<i>Argus Leader</i> article on Thursday</a>, he finally succeeded. The ethics
board retracted its reprimands in exchange for Staggers' promise not to
sue it. This implies that he threatened to sue it, as if any court
would hear a suit against an ethics board that did nothing but tell an
official confidentially that he had done something wrong. But a threat
of litigation can be enough to change a lot of people's minds (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/771" target="”_blank”">my blog post on SLAPP suits</a>).<br>
<br>
According to Staggers, "justice has finally prevailed." According to
me, a former council member was so enraged with criticism of his
actions that he publicized the confidential reprimands, which no one
would otherwise have known about, and did all he could to get even. In
other words, he showed that bullies can prevail against an
ethics board, especially one that is toothless (i.e., only the council can enforce the ethics code).<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
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