Form of Government Ethics Issues
Form of government issues are not generally considered to be part of
government ethics. But they are intertwined in important ways.<br>
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This can be seen from the New York City Council slush fund
scandal. According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/nyregion/11council.html" target="”_blank”">an
article</a> in today's New York Times, it began when the Board of
Estimate, a finance board in charge of writing the budget, was
abolished in the charter revision of 1989. This gave control of
the budget to the Council.<br>
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<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/435">Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.</a>
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In a strong mayor form of government such as New York City's, the mayor
has to approve the budget. Discretionary funds for council members
became a way for the mayor to make it easier to get his spending plan
through the Council. Because this was an important part of budget
negotiations, although not a large percentage of the budget, mayors
looked the other way and provided no oversight over the expenditure of
these discretionary funds.<br>
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According to the article, things were even worse before 1989.
County political leaders were financed by the Board of Estimate, and
this money passed down through a patronage system controlled by the
county machines. So what has survived of this system is just a
shadow of it, and council members are most likely happy with the improvement
and, therefore, not ashamed of having far smaller slush funds of their
own.<br>
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Every form of government, and every change in aspects of the form of
government, provides opportunities for unethical conduct. Checks and
balances are, of course, the best way to prevent such opportunities,
but as in New York City, the executive and the legislative body can
effectively negotiate away the checks when it is in their interest to.
It is important when considering charter revisions to consider the
possible ethical repercussions and what needs to be included to limit
opportunities for unethical conduct, to keep unethical conduct from
being institutionalized in ways such as slush funds.<br>
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Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>