Politicians on Ethics Commissions

Having politicians on the Queensbury, NY Ethics Board has created a mess. According to an article in the Glen Falls PostStar, one council member brought a complaint against another council member, and when the ethics board found that the respondent should have recused himself on a vote, the respondent insisted that some of the ethics board members were acting out of political spite.

Those board members were on the town's Republican committee and had openly supported a candidate running against the respondent. The respondent wanted to change the rules so that politically involved people could not sit on the ethics board.

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The responses of the politically involved board members were typical. First, they said that if politically involved people were kept off the ethics board, they couldn't find people to sit on it. This is rarely true, and never tested by those who make the argument.

Second, they said they could render impartial decisions (and took issue with the implication they couldn't), which is not the point. The point is that they appear to be partial and that no one knows whether they are acting impartially or not, so that the ethics system is seriously undermined. How can anyone have respect for an ethics board with members who appear to have their own conflicts and refuse to recuse themselves? Anyone who makes this second argument does not have a sufficient understanding of the reasons for conflict of interest laws to sit on an ethics board.

The City Ethics Model Code deals with this issue as follows:

203 Ethics Commission: Establishment; Qualifications of Members; Appointment of Members; Term of Office.

2. No member of the Ethics Commission may be, or have been within the three years prior to appointment, an appointed official or employee* of the city. Nor may a member of the Ethics Commission hold office in a political party or be employed or act as a lobbyist. An Ethics Commission member may make campaign contributions but may not participate in any election campaign.

3. Of the regular membership of the Board, no more than two may be registered in the same political party, and at least one must be registered as unaffiliated. The alternate members may not be registered in the same political party.