Jackson County Legislators Abandon Promise to Make Themselves Subject to New Ethics Code

The word from Jackson County (MO) last week was that the county legislature was "close to revising the county’s ethics code to include them under its rules," according to an article in the Kansas City Star, as discussed, very skeptically, in a recent blog entry. Taking themselves out of the ethics code was what had led to the ethics commission resigning en masse.

A week later, an amendment to the ethics code was filed by the very people who said they were putting themselves back into the ethics code. The amendment is five pages long, plus a paragraph, but only the plus a paragraph part is new. The paragraph allows for judicial review of ethics commission decisions. No change will be made to jurisdiction over county legislators.

County legislators, and all other elected officials, are subject not to the county ethics code, but just to the Missouri ethics code (along with all other county officials). Just this week, I did a blog entry which, among other things, shared the Missouri legislators' view of the state ethics commission as underfunded, the state ethics laws as too weak, and enforcement as insufficient to act as a deterrent. Sounds like just what the county legislators want.

The county legislators keep talking about the problem of double jeopardy, of possibly being investigated by both the county and state ethics commissions. One, they don't seem to notice that there are levels of enforcement in criminal matters, too, such as the district attorney, state attorney general, and the feds. Overlapping jurisdiction is a fact of life in the U.S., and it is common to government ethics in many states.

Two, the new ordinance doesn't use double jeopardy as the reason for elected officials opting out. It says, "Given that the County Legislature and the County Executive are the elected officials ultimately responsible for approving the budget for, promulgating rules to govern, and entering into contracts for the Jackson County Ethics Commission, it is necessary to avoid even the appearance of influence over Commission actions and decisions."

This "appearance of influence" is easy to remedy, especially since ethics commission members aren't chosen by elected officials. The county legislature should guarantee the EC budget, and give the EC the power, and funds, to hire independent counsel. With the budget and the county counselor no longer factors in the ethics program, the ethics commission is insulated from influence, and elected officials may therefore be subject to its jurisdiction without any apparent conflicts.

For more on the Jackson County legislature's games, see these two additional blog entries:
False Presentation of Ethics Ordinance
Legislators Fending Off Ethics Enforcement

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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