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A Miscellany
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Robert Wechsler
Ethics Reform Usually Means Ethics Changes
While most people in Massachusetts are cheering on the ethics reform package that was just passed, at least one state representative has focused on the compromises and limitations of the package, calling it a first step. Most responses to scandals are partial rather than changing the entire environment, and in her excellent guest column Rep. Jennifer Callahan points out the problems with this.
Ethics vs. Religion
When religious organizations gets involved in government ethics matters, ethics commissions need to be especially sensitive. An example of this occurred recently in Connecticut, where a Catholic Diocese organized a protest on the state house grounds. The question was whether the Diocese spent enough money to require it to register as a lobbyist. The office of state ethics decided not to pursue an investigation of this protest, according to an article in the Hartford Courant, because of the possible chilling effect on the freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, and the separation of church and state.
Who Says There's a Perception of Impropriety?
Too often, local government officials hide behind a local government attorney's advice that it is legal to participate in a matter where there is an apparent conflict of interest. According to a recent article in the Turlock (CA) Journal, a Turlock council member ignored the city attorney's advice not to participate, and an ethics complaint was filed against her, leading to the creation of a grand jury.
The grand jury found that the council member's participation was not illegal. However, it agreed with the city attorney: “Often the perception of wrongdoing is greater than the offense itself. This appears to be the case here; wherein no actual wrongdoing was found to exist, the perception of wrongdoing does (exist) ... (Jackson) should have recused herself to avoid any perception of wrongdoing.”And the grand jury suggested modifications in the city's conflict of interest policy so that this sort of thing would not happen again.
But the council member's response undermined anything constructive that could have come out of the grand jury's report.
Most damaging was her statement that only the politically motivated perceived a conflict. How can an official who is so focused on internal political squabbles know how the public feels about an official's conflict, especially her own conflict? In fact, the public usually hates such political squabbles, and they, as much as the irresponsible handling of conflicts of interest, play a role in the public's lack of trust in their government officials.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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While most people in Massachusetts are cheering on the ethics reform package that was just passed, at least one state representative has focused on the compromises and limitations of the package, calling it a first step. Most responses to scandals are partial rather than changing the entire environment, and in her excellent guest column Rep. Jennifer Callahan points out the problems with this.
Ethics vs. Religion
When religious organizations gets involved in government ethics matters, ethics commissions need to be especially sensitive. An example of this occurred recently in Connecticut, where a Catholic Diocese organized a protest on the state house grounds. The question was whether the Diocese spent enough money to require it to register as a lobbyist. The office of state ethics decided not to pursue an investigation of this protest, according to an article in the Hartford Courant, because of the possible chilling effect on the freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, and the separation of church and state.
Who Says There's a Perception of Impropriety?
Too often, local government officials hide behind a local government attorney's advice that it is legal to participate in a matter where there is an apparent conflict of interest. According to a recent article in the Turlock (CA) Journal, a Turlock council member ignored the city attorney's advice not to participate, and an ethics complaint was filed against her, leading to the creation of a grand jury.
The grand jury found that the council member's participation was not illegal. However, it agreed with the city attorney: “Often the perception of wrongdoing is greater than the offense itself. This appears to be the case here; wherein no actual wrongdoing was found to exist, the perception of wrongdoing does (exist) ... (Jackson) should have recused herself to avoid any perception of wrongdoing.”And the grand jury suggested modifications in the city's conflict of interest policy so that this sort of thing would not happen again.
But the council member's response undermined anything constructive that could have come out of the grand jury's report.
The civil grand jury report clearly
confirms what I’ve been saying
all along. It exonerates me from doing anything wrong,
the perception of a conflict-of-interest was not the majority of
Turlock citizens but a few people who are politically motivated. I
will continue to follow high standards and hold the rest of our city
officials to the same standards. Again, I will not be silenced from the
job I was elected to do.
Most damaging was her statement that only the politically motivated perceived a conflict. How can an official who is so focused on internal political squabbles know how the public feels about an official's conflict, especially her own conflict? In fact, the public usually hates such political squabbles, and they, as much as the irresponsible handling of conflicts of interest, play a role in the public's lack of trust in their government officials.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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