Ethics Commission E-Newsletters
Government ethics e-newsletters are a good source of ideas, and something worth considering for your local government's ethics commission or ethics officer. <a href="http://www.atlantaga.gov/client_resources/government/boards/board_of_et…; target="”_blank">Atlanta's
new
spring 2010 newsletter</a>, <i>Ethics Matters</i>, is a good example of what such an e-newsletter can do.<br>
<br>
<b>Ethics Pledges</b><br>
The first piece in the five-page newsletter is about the requirement
for new and departing city officials and employees to sign an ethics
pledge. Pledges might sound silly: what difference will they
really make? But this attitude generally assumes there are good people
who will do good anyway, and bad people who couldn't care less about a
piece of paper. This is not a very astute view of human nature, nor is
it what government ethics, or ethics pledges,
are about.<br>
<br>
Ethics pledges are a good way to focus people's attention on their
possible conflicts of interest,
which simply sending them a code will not do. One way ethics pledges do
this is
to personalize an ethics code. This is how one of the Atlanta ethics pledges is worded:<br>
<ul>
I will use public property, vehicles, equipment, labor, and services
only for official city business and not request or allow its use for
the private advantage of any individual or private entity.<br>
</ul>
Ethics pledges also focus on the most common issues, in simple, clear
language.<br>
<br>
For departing officials and employees, the ethics pledge is a reminder
about the city's revolving door provisions (Atlanta uses the term "cooling-off period"). Many people think ethics laws end when they leave
public service. It is important to remind people that this isn't so.<br>
<br>
Atlanta has <a href="http://www.atlantaga.gov/government/boards/ethics_education.aspx" target="”_blank">different
pledges</a> for employees, elected officials, and volunteer officials.<br>
<br>
<b>Ethics Awards</b><br>
The second piece in the newsletter is about awards given by the board
of ethics to departments and boards for their success in filing
financial disclosure statements.<br>
<br>
Awards like this serve two functions. One, they provide an incentive
for
department and board officials to encourage or even require the filling
out of
disclosure statements. Internal incentives are far better than
penalties from an ethics commission.<br>
<br>
Two, awards show the positive side of government ethics. Too much of
what
is written in the government ethics field is about enforcement, about
failures to comply and the penalties people get for it. It's more
important to praise responsible conduct.<br>
<br>
The Atlanta ethics board even holds a ceremony to give out the awards.<br>
<br>
It's good to be able to have clear quantitative criteria for such
awards, because officials will know exactly what to strive for. But
less defined awards can also be helpful. Such awards, however, require
nominations and explanations why a department, board, or individual
should get an award for, say, responsible handling of conflicts or open
discussion of ethical matters. This subject deserves its own blog post.<br>
<br>
<b>Other Topics</b><br>
The Atlanta newsletter also includes a summary of a recent advisory opinion,
with a link to the complete version; news about the ethics board; news
about ethics training; and what everyone likes the most: a short
hypothetical and three factoids.<br>
<br>
If you want to subscribe to the Atlanta ethics e-newsletter, write <a href="mailto:ethicsofficer@atlantaga.gov">ethicsofficer@atlantaga.gov</a>
and ask to be put on the e-newsletter list.<br>
<br>
<b>The Value of Ethics Newsletters</b><br>
Ethics newsletters keep government ethics in the minds of government
officials and employees, an important part of ethics training. They are
also a good way for an ethics commission and its staff to regularly
consider what is most important to those they serve, and to keep in
touch with them, at a very low cost.<br>
<br>
<b>Other E-Newsletters</b><br>
It helps to have full-time staff, such as Atlanta's ethics officer,
Ginny Looney, to put newsletters together. But an ethics commission
subcommittee or member could equally well do a quarterly
newsletter,
with help from spouses and children, perhaps. Note that among the big
cities and the states listed below is Newcastle County, Delaware.<br>
<br>
Here are links to e-newsletters put out by the ethics commissions of
other local government and of states that handle local government
ethics. <br>
<a href="http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalDeptCategoryAction.d…; target="”_blank">Chicago</a><br>
<a href="http://www.miamidadeethics.com/RighthandBarResources/Publications.html&…; target="”_blank">Miami-Dade
County</a><br>
<a href="http://www.nccde.org/ethics/Home/webpage1.asp" target="”_blank">Newcastle County</a>
(DE)<br>
<a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/conflicts/html/publications/ethical_times_dir.s…; target="”_blank">New
York
City</a><br>
<a href="http://www.phila.gov/ethicsboard/newsletters.html" target="”_blank">Philadelphia</a><br>
<a href="http://www.ethics.state.la.us/EthicsPublicationSearch.aspx?portal=Ethic…; target="”_blank">Louisiana</a><br>
<a href="http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ethsubtopic&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Publications&L2=…; target="”_blank">Massachusetts</a><br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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