‘Legislative Ethics’ Doesn’t Have To Be An Oxymoron
Let’s face it: Only a few legislators habitually behave in an unethical manner. Recent examples include Trey Paradee/Darius Brown (pushing legislation for his development lawyer brother/openly soliciting contributions from Minquadale garbage dump lobbyists respectively). Longtime ethical scofflaws include Nicole ‘No Longer’ Poore, Our PAL Val Longhurst and, of course, Mike Ramone.
Since the ethics of legislators has traditionally been ‘reviewed’ by the House and Senate Ethics Committees, and since Nicole Poore and Val Longhurst have been on the respective Ethics Committees, nobody was in danger of having unethical behavior addressed. Poore has been excised from leadership, but Longhurst has not.
Legislators still have pretty much have free reign when it comes to using their offices for their personal benefit.
This week’s “Highlands Bunker’ focuses on the topic. Also check out Jack Guerin, FightDECorruption.com & and his essay Delaware needs an inspector general
I find it charmingly naive that anyone thinks an inspector general would accomplish the stated goal. As Mr. Guerin’s op-ed points out, it’s easy enough to starve any such initiative of funding, which the General Assembly would certainly do.
You have the further problem of how to choose such a person. If it’s a governor’s appointment, the IG is a lapdog. If it’s an elected position, it will be at the vagaries of a Delaware public that takes its responsibility to choose wisely so seriously that it elected Karen Weldin Stewart repeatedly. If you believe that she was good for the insured of the state, I’m sure you’ll love whomever the public chooses for this post.
BTW, any fan of corrupt state governments has to laugh at the notion that Rhode Island, another state dominated by Democrats without being liberal and one whose corruption puts Delaware’s two-bit pikers to shame, is somehow doing it right. Of course, reformers in Rhode Island would point out that the 12-person office Mr. Guerin champions apparently doesn’t get the job done either. Reformers there are pushing for — wait for it — an inspector general. Their proposal “would be chosen by a panel made up of the governor, attorney general, general treasurer, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, House speaker, Senate president and the minority leaders in the House and Senate. He or she would then serve a single five-year term.” So the inspector will be chosen by the inspectees. Yeah, that ought to work.
What Rhode Island has that Delaware does not is a first-class newspaper that regularly highlighted the corruption it found, and it found a lot because it had the resources to look for it. As a result, Rhode Island’s crooked politicians frequently were brought low by publicity and legal action, while in Delaware they stay in office and just keep getting re-elected. If a name-and-shame strategy worked — it doesn’t because Delaware lacks a TV station — Mike Ramone and Trey Paradee would already be history. The problem here isn’t that we don’t know these people are corrupt, it’s the lack of public will to do anything about it.
As much as I like seeing people trying to clean up state government, I dislike seeing them put their faith in a handful of magic beans, which is what an IG’s office serves as here. Pass tighter ethics laws, put an investigative framework in place and prosecute these malefactors. That’s not easy, but it’s bound to work better than putting in all this work to create an office that will, like magic, clean up Leg Hall.
In theory, a State Auditor could serve as both a fiscal and ethical watchdog.
In theory. Not in fact.
Not with Wags then Park City:(
The inspector general idea has been pushed by the iPOD idgits and Mike Protack so much over the years that anyone talking about it seriously is automatically considered a dipshit in my book.
Realistically, the auditor and the AG should both have independent teams in place ferreting this stuff out. Unfortunately, both can only enforce the existing law, so we need good legislators first to make better laws. The PIC was intended to serve that role for ethics in part, but has been defanged and poorly funded, and its work largely hidden by official secrecy laws.
(Note to the stupid: “Better laws” does not include creating an IG position.)
The IG bill supported by DelCOG provides for a selection committee with 13 members from non-governmental organizations. There are also six members from government including one appointed by the Governor, four from the General Assembly, and one by the Public Defender’s Office.
That’s nice. Good luck.