Treating Institutional Problems as Institutional Problems
According to <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/news/134479448_Gary_Martin_files_an_ethics_c…; target="”_blank”">an
article in Parsippany (NJ) <i>Life</i></a>, a Parsippany school board
member filed an ethics complaint against himself with the state's
School Ethics Commission. Is this odd course of action the best way to bring transparency to the school board, an institutional rather than personal problem?<br>
<br>
The school board member considers himself guilty of not following up
on the rescission of the superintendent's contract, when it was
discovered that the school board had given the superintendent a salary over the
state limit. It turned out that the superintendent's salary was not,
in fact, reduced.<br>
<br>
Whether or not the board member's failure was actually a violation of the state
ethics code, as the board member insists, but others deny, it
certainly brought attention to the school board's lack of
transparency, which is an ethics problem. Not only is a lack of
transparency damaging to any government agency, but the failure to
lower the salary jeopardized millions of dollars in state aid.<br>
<br>
The article points out, however, that the board member "didn’t point
a finger at anyone else who may have violated the ethics code on an
even grander scale, but instead he took responsibility for his own
actions." To the board member, government ethics is all about
personal responsibility. "I’m not a political guy," he said. "I
don’t know how to play that game. I can’t spin or deny. I ran on a
platform of transparency and so when I dropped the ball, I held
myself accountable. . . . If the commission suspends or censures me,
I’ll take it and then come back to finish what I started."<br>
<br>
Had the board member taken an institutional approach to transparency
in his organization, he would have filed a complaint against the
entire board, including himself, and against the superintendent for
allowing the superintendent to be paid more than the legal salary
and not insisting of complete transparency. It's great that this
official was willing to hold himself accountable, but this is not the best way to bring about
change. In fact, the board member's (as well as government ethics') focus on personal responsiblity
rather than institutional responsibility is, to some extent,
responsible for not dealing with ingrained problems such as lack of transparency. This is not a
personal problem, but an institutional problem, and it should be
approached as an institutional problem.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
203-859-1959