Good and Bad News from Three Cities
<br>
<b>Good and Bad News from Memphis</b><br>
The good news from Memphis is that newly-elected mayor A. C. Wharton,
Jr. issued an ethics executive order last week (attached; see below).
The order's provisions, which do not apply to council and its staff,
are less valuable in their own right than as a prod to the council to
improve the <a href="http://www.memphistn.gov/pdf_forms/EthicsOrd060407.pdf" target="”_blank”">current
ethics code</a>.<br>
<br>
The order's provisions are to be enforced by the city's Chief Ethics
Officer, who will be appointed by the ethics board. The bad news is
that the results of investigations are to be reported to the mayor
rather than to the ethics board (which hears about violations of the ethics code). That's a mess, and certainly not a good
long-term setup for an ethics program.<br>
<br>
The ethics executive order follows on a <a href="http://www.cityofmemphis.org/pdf_forms/MayorsTransparencyExecutiveOrder…; target="”_blank”">transparency
executive order</a>, which requires a great deal more disclosure than
before, but has time periods that do not present the image of a city in
a rush to get information out. The fact that the <a href="http://www.cityofmemphis.org/pdf_forms/ExecutiveOrder_HighEthicalStanda…; target="”_blank”">ethics
executive order</a> is hard to read online (which is why it's attached
rather than linked to) does not provide much faith that Memphis's
documents will be easily accessible any time soon.<br>
<br>
The other good news from Memphis, according to <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/dec/15/new-memphis-cao-most-n…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the <i>Commercial Appeal</i></a>, is that the council has finally
appointed an ethics board, the first time under an <a href="http://www.memphistn.gov/pdf_forms/EthicsOrd060407.pdf" target="”_blank”">ethics
code</a> passed in 2007.<br>
<br>
<b>Good and Bad News from Montreal</b><br>
The good news from Montreal, according to the <a href="http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091216/mtl_ethics_hot…; target="”_blank”">ctv.ca
site</a>, is that the city's ethics hotline is up and running. The bad
news is that the city's ethics councillor is a member of the city
council.<br>
<br>
<b>Good and Bad News from Philadelphia</b><br>
The good news from Philadelphia is that, according to <a href="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/79386872.html" target="”_blank”">an
<i>Inquirer</i> editorial</a>, the mayor wants to end the political work done
by employees of the city's Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT). And the
council wants to break the BRT up into two separate offices, an
assessment office and an appeal board.<br>
<br>
Because city employees are not allowed to participate in city political
campaigns, the BRT's employees are paid by the city school district,
whose employees are allowed to get involved in political campaigns.
This clever ploy has made the BRT a hotbed of patronage jobs.<br>
<br>
The bad news is that the mayor has not chosen to put the BRT's
employees on the city payroll. He has decided to give them a civil
service exam, and not allow people without their experience to take the
exam.<br>
<br>
The good news is that the mayor has hired as the new BRT executive
director a member of the city's ethics board who is supposed to be
independent.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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