I don't understand the post from Victoria Heller about ethics at City Hall. She seems to express frustration with the level of unethical behaviors that have occured in our local government. Yet, she criticizes the efforts of newly elected representatives to try to make ethics a topic of focus, with the purpose of bringing the issue into the light.
One of the reasons unethical behavior thrived in the past is because there was a culture that apparently had an unwritten code of acceptance of the behavior. A Mayor or Council body can't control the individual behavior of all elected officials and employees. The only thing they can do is make sure their own behavior is ethical and try to set influence the culture by sending a strong and direct message to elected officials and employees what behavior is unaccaptable. Think about it - if you were an employee considering engaging in behavior that may be in a grey area on the ethics scale, don't you think it would be more likely that you would avoid the behavior if you were given an ethics policy that directly stated the behavior was unacceptable? I think the Mayor would be at fault if he didn't take the step of defining the issue and clearly setting the bar for what is acceptable and what is not. Michelle Mensing Armatage ----- Original Message ----- From: "Victoria Heller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Mpls Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 10:30 AM Subject: [Mpls] Remedial Ethics for City Employees - Is this really happening? > Are they really such bumbling fools that we have to provide them with a list > of immoral acts? > > Is it really OK to take a bribe, as long as they wait a year? > > If it's not on the list of No-No's is it OK to engage in wrongdoing? > > Elected officials won't be able to get loans from the MCDA any more, but > apparently it's OK for all the other City employees to get mortgages for > themselves and their buddies. (I wonder what the default rate is on those > inside deals.) > > They must be kidding. Is this really a joke that I'm not getting? > > Mayor Rybak says that developing a City Hall ethics code boils down to the > word "Trust." > > Here's what I propose: We'll trust you guys when you stop abusing the "full > faith and credit" of Minneapolis taxpayers - because frankly, we're PLUM OUT > OF BOTH. > > Vicky Heller > North Oaks > > _______________________________________ > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: > http://e-democracy.org/mpls > _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
