Ethics Recidivism After Getting Off Easy
You don't hear too much about recidivism in the municipal ethics world. One reason may be that it happens, but often at different levels, as a politician moves up the ladder.
Take Congressional Representative Gary Miller, for instance. According to <a href="http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/020607/mil… recent article in <i>The Hill</i></a>, he got his start when he was a member of the Diamond Bar (CA) City Council. In his role as council member, he sponsored a resolution that would, among other things, enable him to annex 52 acres of undeveloped land into Covina, making the land more valuable, because it would get city services. Before the vote in Covina on this resolution, he gave a Covina council member $8,000 'for his work as a campaign consultant.' For this, the Covina council member was fined $1,750 by the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Miller got off easy and could only believe that he could get away with it again.
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/230">Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.</a>
Now the FBI is reviewing Miller's land deals, something Miller blames on a media smear campaign. <i>The Hill</i> reported on an attempt by Monrovia city officials to get a federal earmark to purchase land for a wilderness preserve, 165 acres of it owned by Miller. The earmark failed, but a California grant was obtained to pay for the land, and Miller made almost $10 million. Then the Los Angeles <i>Times</i> reported that Miller failed to pay capital gains tax on this sale, claiming that the city had exercised eminent domain, which the city denied doing. The Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington followed with a complaint to the IRS.
Maybe Miller shouldn't have gotten away with the first ethical problem. It is a problem that few cities' ethics programs extend enforcement to non-officials. This puts all the burden on government workers and none on business people. It invites attempts to seduce, and punishes the one who usually gains the least.
Had Miller been fined and had a public ethics violation been placed around his neck, he might have had a harder time getting elected to the state Senate and then to the U.S. Congress.
But how much do ethics violations matter? How much are they explained away or ignored by the news media as something short of corruption, especially when there is no fine or only something minimal? Does someone have to do time to get a bad reputation?
Perhaps now, if he doesn't get away with it again, Miller will realize he should choose between investing in local land (or at least using his influence to affect that investment) and being a politician.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics