Nutter's ethics plan (The Next Mayor)

And here are some thoughts on Nutter's ethics plan.

First of all, it's a vivid reminder that Nutter was responsible for much of the progress the city has made in in ethics reform lately -- and not just because the plan is written to make sure you don't miss the point. Hey, the guy did introduce the legislation that created the Board of Ethics.

Much of the plan borrows from the Committee of 70's ethics agenda -- with full attribution and thanks (this is an ethics plan, after all). Still, there were some things in the plan that I thought deserved special attention.

One, for sheer chutzpah: He wants to conduct "random financial audits" of elected and senior appointed officials every year and post them on the city's Web site. Whoa! One, the potential entertainment value is staggering. Two, the fear factor that this would create, if it ever had a chance of happening, is also staggering. Three, how in the world do you do this?

Two, for an idea that is important but may be premature: He wants to work with the Philadelphia District Attorney to increase funding for city corruption investigations. He'd also have the DA work more closely with the feds.

I'm all for more investigations, and I understand the argument that the city should police itself. But I don't know how realistic that is, especially given the deep needs of the violent-crime portions of the DA's office. The feds certainly seem to be doing fine in investigating city corruption. Why not let that continue?

In more likely and interesting ideas:

*He would convene an independent panel to review all current laws on campaign contributions and spending. A fine idea, and it's probably smart to keep it separate from the enforcement-minded Board of Ethics.

*He's suggesting lobbyist registration, a common-sense idea.

*He wants all city employees to file, online, financial dislosure information yearly and that candidates for office disclose tax returns (the reporters of Philadelphia say, yay!).

*He would strengthen the role of inspector general -- at some point, someone is going to have to explain to me how this idea, now suggested by several candidates, will work with the controller's office -- and extend the gift ban.

*He would also expand the campaign contribution limits and no-bid contracting rules to the School District -- again, common sense. And he wants to publish a list of all tax breaks and other incentives gotten by businesses.

And my favorite: Televise the meetings of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. No, most folks won't sit and watch this stuff. But televising it does make it a lot easier for reporters to cover it. And that will mean more coverage -- which is a very good thing. It would also expand access to the many activists who are working on these issues but can't get to all the meetings.

Comments (2)

Dave

I think Wendy covered the highlights pretty well. A few other, more minor, things caught my attention:

- Somebody else noticed this, actually, but the Inquirer article on Nutter's ethics proposal (linked to from the front page) mentions that the random audits would be carried out by the Board of Ethics and would require additional staffing.

- At one point, the document mentions that the Board of Ethics should "decide whether a website developed with excess pre-candidacy contributions is a violation of the law" (I can take a guess at what candidate did this).

- He wants to require disclosure of negotiations between developers and neighborhood organizations

- He proposes reviewing and, if necessary, changing regulations governing future employment of city officials and employees by companies doing business with the city. I found this interesting since there was recently a high profile case where the city's technology manager (I forget the exact title) went to work with a company that had worked with and city. Nutter himself has also been criticized for taking a job with a company that received city business after resigning from council to run for mayor.

- I started reading the document wondering how many of the items in it were actually achievable by the mayor and how many required legislation to be introduced in city council. It appears that in cases where the latter is necessary, the phrase "work with city council" was included, which I appreciated.

- There was no clause that specifically mentioned non-profits, except for the one dealing with neighborhood organizations. Maybe non-profits are covered by one of the proposals and I just didn't notice, though.

As I've mentioned in the past, I support Michael Nutter's for mayor.

Posted by Dave | February 6, 2007 9:45 PM

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