The Responsibilities of a Local Government Official's Spouse

Ethics codes do not generally have rules about the involvement of
spouses of government officials in citizen groups. But this can create
serious appearance problems, as it has in St. Charles, Illinois, an hour west of Chicago, according to <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-school-couple-23-mar23,0,2…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's Chicago </a><span><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-school-couple-23-mar23,0,2…; target="”_blank”">Tribune</a>.</span>
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The wife of a St. Charles school board member is an officer for a group
set up to promote a $114 million school building referendum measure
that is not only in the town, but in the school board member's
district. I'd like to take a critical look at what various people have said
about this situation.<br>
<br>
The school board member sees no conflict of interest. He said, "My
wife is doing that as a citizen of the community. I never
made her do it. She chose to help and be a part of it. That's something
that she believes in."<br>
<br>
The school board president took basically the same view, with a mildly
feminist twist: "It doesn't make a difference to me, because she is a
public citizen
and has a right to her opinions and political actions. To
be held back because of her husband's position isn't appropriate."<br>
<br>
A member of the group opposing the referendum said that it undermined
his confidence in the referendum process. "It creates a
level of discomfort and brings into question the objectivity of the
board." Note that his view says nothing of the wife, but turns the
issue toward the husband.<br>
<br>
The acting director of the Better Government Association is quoted as
saying that the wife's involvement "creates the appearance of a
problem." He thinks it is up to the community to decide. But he doesn't
say how. The community can't do anything about the wife, only about the
husband.<br>
<br>
There are two problems intertwined here. One is the definition of a
conflict of interest. The other is how to enforce a conflict when it is
not the government official who has the conflict, but a family member.<br>
<br>
The husband shows a lack of understanding of what a conflict is.
Conflicts do not involve a person's motives, but rather appearances and
pressures on their objectivity.<br>
<br>
Appearances first. The wife is wearing two hats: the hat of school
board member's spouse and the hat of officer of a group pushing a
school building in her husband's district. To someone who opposes the
referendum, it looks as if the husband is pushing for it through his
wife, no matter how independent she might actually be. The appearance
is of government officials manipulating public opinion indirectly.<br>
<br>
To consider personal pressures, let's hypothesize that the husband is
privately against the referendum. By becoming such a public proponent
of the referendum, the wife has made it difficult for the husband to
come out publicly against it, thereby rejecting his wife's strongly
held views before the entire community. Should someone be faced with
this pressure?<br>
<br>
This kind of conflict is difficult to enforce. Should the husband be
forced to recuse himself? This would take off the pressure and bring
more trust to the school board, but the conflict did not originate with
him, so it will seem unfair to many people to require anything of the
husband. And yet the husband can take the high road and choose to
recuse himself, even if no rule or authority says he must.<br>
<br>
But what if the school board doesn't vote, or if the vote occurred
before the group was formed. The husband can do nothing but suggest
privately that his wife not become so involved with this particular
issue. But as the husband and school board president said, it is up to
her, even though she is not a government official. But what's up to her
is not just the right to voice her opinions, but the responsibility to preserve
trust in government by not creating a conflict for her husband.<br>
<br>
Is this
responsibility to one's community not every bit as much the role of a
citizen as the right of free speech?<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
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