I think the issue of ethics in government is always a concern for the average person, and I think the average person will be comforted to know that there is a thoughtful policy in place. I would think elected officials would also feel more comfortable knowing exactly where the boundaries are. Those boundaries are not always criminal which is why some have pointed out that these guidelines would not have prevented the Herron and Biernat cases. But then, no set of guidelines would have prevented those cases, and I doubt that anyone setting about to establish these guidelines is making any such assumption.
Robert Lilligren wrote:
I do believe that this proposed ordinance in response to the two occurrences of Council Member misconduct over the last two years. I think it is important to keep in mind through the upcoming discussions that nothing in this proposed ethics ordinance would have prevented either criminal offense. Nor would an ordinance like the one proposed have given the citizens of Minneapolis any better system of recourse. Though it is easy--and popular -- to connect the need for this ordinance to these recent disgraces, it is irrelevant.
These words coming from an elected official sound just a little to weird for me. It's great for Robert Lilligren to point out that new ethics guidelines wouldn't have prevented recent Council Member misconduct, but Robert has carefully sidestepped (or omitted) any thoughts he has about what he thinks about the proposed guidelines or for that matter what he thinks about having any guidelines. The tenor of the above statement is really the opposite, almost like "don't saddle me with any ethics guidelines." Lisa McDonald's comments on the list give the same impression - that neither of them wants to have this set of guidelines. Please note that I used the word "impression." Neither Robert nor Lisa has said their against the guidelines, but they are making arguments in that direction.
I personally would like to know that there is a thoughtful set of ethics guidelines in place for elected officials. If we could just get the guidelines in place and if Bush would stop pushing his imperialistic war, well, I would be able to sleep very comfortably at night.
Thanks to all those who worked hard on these guidelines.
Paul Lohman Lynnhurst
Paul Lohman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible.
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
