Mayoral and Council Interference with EC Member and Staff Selection
The independence of ethics commissions and their staff is the single
most important aspect of a government ethics program. <br>
Who selects the commission members and their staff, and how, colors
everything about an ethics program and determines, more than any
other factor, whether the public has confidence in the commission's
advice and enforcement of an ethics code. So the news from Washington, DC and Atlanta is not good.<br>
<br>
Last year,
the District of Columbia passed a new ethics ordinance that had many
good things about it, but did not provide for an independent ethics
commission. According to <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2012/03/gray-misses-deadline-nam…; target="”_blank”">an
article yesterday in the Washington <i>Examiner</a>, the mayor missed
the deadline for appointments of members to the new Board of Ethics and Government Accountability. In
fact, he didn't started asking for residents to apply for
the board until last week. Not only will this first ethics board
enforce the city's ethics laws, but it also be responsible for
writing a lot of rules and regulations itself. And it has been given
a short time to do this. The selection process should have begun
immediately after the new ethics ordinance had been passed.<br>
<br>
The article raises an issue that I haven't considered with respect
to mayoral or council appointment of ethics commission members:<ul>
Since taking office in 2011, Gray hasn't
filled more than 700 seats on the city's 175 boards and
commissions. A recent <i>Examiner</i> analysis found that 27 of those
panels have no members at all or are exclusively made up of
people whose terms have expired.</ul>
If elected officials are not responsible enough to fill places on
boards, then this responsibility should be taken out of their hands,
at least when the board has oversight over them. Yes, I realize that
it is difficult to fill so many positions. Citizens aren't begging
to be nominated. This is why it is best to bring community
organizations into the picture, as is the case in Atlanta and many
other cities and counties, because these organizations have far less
problem finding citizens willing to serve.<br>
<br>
<b>A Council Attempt to Short-Circuit the Independent Ethics Officer Selection Process</b><br>
Atlanta's truly independent ethics board might not be so independent
if certain council members have their way. In mid-January, the board
selected a former executive secretary of the Georgia Campaign
Finance Commission to be the city's ethics officer (it was a 7-0 vote),
according to <a href="http://www.atlantaunfiltered.com/2012/03/14/councilman-stung-by-ethics-…; target="”_blank”">an
article yesterday on the Atlanta Unfiltered website.</a> The
council's only role is to confirm the board’s selection, and a month
later it hasn't done so.<br>
<br>
In fact, one council member is proposing an
alternative selection process, after the selection process has been
all but completed! His proposal is that the ethics board would
give the council the names of three finalists for the position and all supporting
documentation. A council committee would then review the
list and make its own recommendation to the full council. The
language does not require that the committee recommend one of the
three finalists. The proposal provides similar procedures for
choosing the city auditor and the director of the Citizen Review
Board.<br>
<br>
This would be bad enough if it weren't for this council member's
history with the ethics board and officer. Not only was he
fined by the ethics officer last year, but since 2008 five other
council members have been fined by the ethics officer. It would be
natural to want to have some control over the appointment of the
next ethics officer, but the council needs to recognize that
although this might make them feel better, it will undermine the
ethics program and, in the long run, lead to bigger scandals that
further undermine the public's trust in their city government. And in them.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
203-859-1959