Maricopa County 5 - Practicing What You Enforce Is Only Fair
A week ago I wrote a <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/preferential-treatment-fairness-and-p…; target="”_blank”"><b>blog
post</b></a> about preferential treatment, emphasizing
that the way to distinguish preferential treatment from ordinary
decisions and transactions,
where someone is commonly preferred over others, is by whether the treatment
is fair and
whether the regular process is followed.<br>
<br>
Fairness is the principal issue in a preferential treatment question
involving the Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio's December 2008
investigation of county supervisor Don Stapley. It appears that the
sheriff followed the regular process (although there is <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2009/09/21/…; target="”_blank”"><b>a
question</b></a> about following the process in his arrest of Stapley this
month). But soon after the December indictment, the Phoenix <i>New Times</i>
ran <a href="http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2008/12/sheriff_joe_arpaio…; target="”_blank”"><b>an
article</b></a> detailing the sheriff's own omissions on his financial
disclosure forms, the same offense he had charged Stapley with.<br>
<br>
The newspaper approached the sheriff with its evidence. The response
was: "Sheriff Arpaio says he has and is complying with regulations
regarding Arizona financial disclosure statements." No investigation.<br>
<br>
The newspaper approached the county attorney with its evidence. No
response.<br>
<br>
And as far as I can tell, no investigation was called for by the
sheriff (although he is being investigated by outside authorities for
other reasons).<br>
<br>
When a sheriff ignores public evidence of his own failure to follow the
same laws he is enforcing -- a failure that brought down New
York governor Eliot Spitzer, who wasn't even a law enforcement officer
anymore -- then he is saying that he is above the
law. And the investigations of someone who cares nothing about fairness
undermine the public trust that law
enforcers act fairly and without preferential treatment.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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