Thursday, September 07, 2006

Ethics - new rules or demand compliance to existing

Frank Szollosi it trying to tighten the ethics policy to match the policy for the Mayor and city employees indicating Council should be held to the same standard. However, Council is not the same as the office of the Mayor, which is a full time position. Council positions are part-time, not full time and most Council members maintain full time jobs in addition to their council position.
Regardless of the policies in place, no policy is effective if no one reports violations and insists on compliance. Several Council members knew what McCloskey was doing and made halfhearted attempts to report his violations.

So here it is… we don’t need more ethics policies, we don’t need elected officials to sign a piece of paper vowing to maintain the ethics laws, we need aggressive reporting of violations when they occur and a demand they are enforced.

If we can enforce what is already on the books, we might once again gain the confidence of the voters. But the grandstanding being done which is wasting valuable time and effort of Council, law directors and clerks is futile and as with any new legislation, will be wrought with problems created by the gaps which were not considered. This is a “rush” job with the potential of disaster.

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