An essential problem in many local governments is a lack of transparency. When people do not know what is happening, and access to information is very difficult, democracy is undermined in several ways. Reformers have a difficult time showing what is actually happening or preparing for public meetings and public hearings. Newspapers are dependent on what officials say. Ordinary citizens become indifferent or completely turned off when all news is of the he said-she said variety.

Published on CityEthics.org (http://www.cityethics.org)
A Cure for Transparency Problems: A Model Website and Blog
By Robert Wechsler
Created 2008-03-24 10:38

The following appeared in <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-kuy28feb28,0,3816020.story">a recent op-ed column</a> in the Los Angeles <i>Times</i> by a young doctor, SreyRam Kuy. The issue was a health insurer asking doctors to report patient conditions that might be used to cancel health insurance.

Dan Ariely, an economist at M.I.T., made up a test that is easy to cheat on, in order to see how social situations might affect students’ choices whether to actually cheat or not. As described in his new book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Hidden-Forces-Decisions/dp… Irrational</a></I>, he found that students who had been asked to recall the Ten Commandments did not cheat at all.

Dan Ariely, an economist at M.I.T., made up a test that is easy to cheat on, in order to see how social situations might affect students’ choices whether to actually cheat or not. As described in his new book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Hidden-Forces-Decisions/dp…; target="_blank">Predictably Irrational</a></i>, he found that students who had been asked to recall the Ten Commandments did not cheat at all.

Strong ethics rules for elected officials are needed <i>not</i> because politicians are especially corrupt or corruptible. They are needed because these leaders are just like the rest of us – human beings who have failings, weaknesses and flaws. ... We elect politicians in the hope that they will pursue for the benefit of the rest of us a course of wisdom and fairness. Our democracy is based on a “hope,” if you will, that our elected representatives will do their utmost to set aside the normal instinct for selfishness and instead will search for the common good.

There is an assumption held by people involved in government ethics that putting one’s personal interests ahead of the public interest is bad, that a healthy democracy depends on government officials working for the public interest rather than for themselves.

But not everyone holds this view. In fact, the prevalence of the opposite view provides a great deal of support to unethical conduct, especially at the local government level.

How harmful can it be for a potential contractor to give money to the favored charities of someone who oversees a county’s finances? And how harmful can it be for a county official to work with people he trusts, rather than competitively bidding out the county’s business?

The answer to both questions, given by the disaster that's hit Jefferson County, Alabama, home to the city of Birmingham, is a lot.

Ethics problems in Louisiana have shown up in this blog several times, so it’s heartening to be able to report that Louisiana is now putting into law a series of ethics improvements, some of which apply to local governments. For example, <a href="http://www.gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&articleID… week Gov.

“Ethics” is an unfortunate name for what appears in government ethics codes. When people think about ethics, they think about right and wrong, about moral obligations, about being honest and upright, about the Golden Rule.

This isn’t what government ethics deals with. Government ethics deals with a limited area of conduct: conflicts of interest. And most people don’t realize this, or understand conflicts of interest.