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Ethics Commission As Mediator
Monday, January 20th, 2014
Robert Wechsler
Here's a new role for an ethics commission: mediator in a
dispute between other government oversight offices. According to an
article in the Advocate last week, New Orleans' ethics board
has appointed two of its members to mediate in an ongoing dispute
between the city's Inspector General and its new Independent Police
Monitor.
This role is not as surprising as it may first appear, because in New Orleans, the inspector general is appointed by the ethics board, the police monitor is appointed by the inspector general (from a list of individuals selected by a search committee), the police monitor can be fired by the ethics board upon the request of the inspector general, and all three offices share the same budget.
According to the article, the police monitor says that the inspector general (1) is not providing the office with sufficient support (she has only two employees, none of them investigators) and (2) is meddling in the police monitor's work. The big question is, Is the independent police monitor independent of the inspector general, or just another employee? This is a question that the city council should ultimately answer, but which the ethics board could provide some useful advice about, after investigating what is going on between its appointee and its appointee's appointee (and, possibly, the IG's subordinate).
The ability of the ethics board to play mediator here is only one of the benefits of putting the inspector general's office under an ethics board's jurisdiction. It also provides the IG's office with true independence, and allows the ethics program to share an IG's expert investigators without being ignored as unimportant (crime too often trumps ethics).
What has been happening in New Orleans should be looked at carefully in New York City, whose council just last year decided to have a police monitor appointed by the head of the Department of Investigation, the city's inspector general's office. The big difference is that the head of this department is appointed not by the city's conflicts of interest board, but rather by the mayor. The kind of problems occurring in New Orleans should be considered and dealt with in advance.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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This role is not as surprising as it may first appear, because in New Orleans, the inspector general is appointed by the ethics board, the police monitor is appointed by the inspector general (from a list of individuals selected by a search committee), the police monitor can be fired by the ethics board upon the request of the inspector general, and all three offices share the same budget.
According to the article, the police monitor says that the inspector general (1) is not providing the office with sufficient support (she has only two employees, none of them investigators) and (2) is meddling in the police monitor's work. The big question is, Is the independent police monitor independent of the inspector general, or just another employee? This is a question that the city council should ultimately answer, but which the ethics board could provide some useful advice about, after investigating what is going on between its appointee and its appointee's appointee (and, possibly, the IG's subordinate).
The ability of the ethics board to play mediator here is only one of the benefits of putting the inspector general's office under an ethics board's jurisdiction. It also provides the IG's office with true independence, and allows the ethics program to share an IG's expert investigators without being ignored as unimportant (crime too often trumps ethics).
What has been happening in New Orleans should be looked at carefully in New York City, whose council just last year decided to have a police monitor appointed by the head of the Department of Investigation, the city's inspector general's office. The big difference is that the head of this department is appointed not by the city's conflicts of interest board, but rather by the mayor. The kind of problems occurring in New Orleans should be considered and dealt with in advance.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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