how common is it for municipalities to have a Code of Ethics?

January 29, 2023 8:01 AM

A city councilor in my tiny town is asking to "amend" (make meaningless) the Code of Ethics which was adopted in 2015. One of her arguments is that some of the even smaller rural municipalities in the area do not have codes of ethics. Google results vary by state - eg an adviory group in Washington State says they are unnecessary, but a consultant's report in Tennessee recommends making them mandatory. Conflicts of interest are especially important here, since we are a "company town" in the old sense of the phrase.
posted by mmiddle to Law & Government (8 answers total)

I don't have any numbers but my sense is that municipalities adopt codes of ethics when citizens feel like they need them, either as remediation after an incident locally, or as a preventative measure when an incident happens in another town and people look around and think "wow, that could definitely happen here." So I don't think you should allow your current city council to overindex on "other towns don't have this!! Why should we have these pesky rules!" Other towns don't think they need it. At some point, your town did. Do you know when your ethics code dates back to? Understanding why it was adopted might help you create an argument for keeping it in place.
posted by potrzebie at 8:33 AM on January 29, 2023

That city councilor should have her head examined. Things like Codes of Ethics are one-way ratchets. You don't have to have one, but once you do, in practice, you can't repeal it, or make it less stringent, at risk of very serious ass-kicking.

A city repealing a Code of Ethics would be like an engraved invitation to the DOJ to start to investigate her and her brethren. Grafting public servants are second only to terrorists in terms of prestige of get for FBI agents and AUSAs.
posted by MattD at 8:49 AM on January 29, 2023

Here in Canada, municipal codes of ethics are standard practice. In at least one province (Saskatchewan), they are mandated by provincial legislation, and if a municipality does not adopt its own, a prescribed model applies by default. The Local Government Management Association has its own code, and many of the principles there end up in the various municipal codes. I know that your jurisdiction is different, but you might find some of the discussion around how these measures came into being useful in dealing with this counsellor.

I agree with the others that this person is asking for it in even mentioning the idea of repealing such a code. All it will take is somebody to say "so, you're not willing to commit to disclosing conflict of interest? Or eliminating harassment?" If the code is not necessary because everybody is already doing all the good things, then it does no harm to leave it in place. Repealing it is an invitation to intense scrutiny by the public and watchdogs of all kinds.
posted by rpfields at 9:18 AM on January 29, 2023

It is very common for small municipalities to have them, or for some type of code within state law to apply within the founding documents or charter.

Public comment: "But doesn't the code of ethics help explain your oath of office? What if [her political] rival did [ example]. It still wouldn't be right, but if it doesn't violate the oath of office, there's nothing you can do."

Also, ask her: "what benefits do those smaller communities have by not having an ethics code? What can they do that we can't?"

Her answer should indicate what she wants to get up to, and will probably quash whatever support she might have, once it's clear she wants to remove a barrier to doing something that is explicitly recognized as unethical.
posted by mibo at 11:10 AM on January 29, 2023

Chiming in as a former consultant to municipalities across the country: very common. One aspect of Codes of Ethics that sometimes creates legit problems relates to sunshine style laws coupled with poorly composed (or excessively stringent) rules prohibiting x number of council members from meeting unless it's in public, properly noticed, etc. Closely related: rules for convening in closed session.
posted by carmicha at 11:26 AM on January 29, 2023

And, if, as carmicha suggests, the Code is making the business of running the municipality too complicated, the proper response would be to AMEND the Code of Ethics to specifically address the issues created by the sometimes poorly drafted rules.
posted by mmf at 1:43 PM on January 29, 2023

It's hard for me to say how common they are. I've lived a few places around the country, mostly inner-ring suburbs where a few different jurisdictions come together, so I've got a decent sense of local government, and I don't remember coming across any local municipal codes of ethics. That's not to say they didn't exist, but to the extent that elected officials in the places I've lived have been corrupt (which is a thing), that's been handled through state criminal laws, not any sort of local code. My sense is that local codes of ethics are probably becoming more common, so my anecdotal stuff just now could very well be out of date, since I've only really lived in one town since your town adopted its code. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the places I've lived adopted such codes after I moved away. Some of them needed it.

But I agree with everyone else that this isn't really a question about how common such codes are. Even if your town were the only town in your state to have one, you presumably adopted yours for a reason. (And you did so recently, which leads me to believe that whatever issue prompted the original campaign is probably still present, and I think you'd agree.) The question about the other towns doesn't matter, because each town faces its own unique circumstances. An extreme example: Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and Compton are three cities in the same county. Do you think Beverly Hills looks to LA or Compton when debating new laws? Of course not. Beverly Hills faces different concerns than either LA or Compton, and both of those cities face different concerns than Beverly Hills. If you're going to benchmark, it's important to choose comparable towns. You mentioned in a previous question that your town is home to a small private college, and you said here that it's an old company town. Those are two details that make your town quite different than many other small towns, and if you want a fair comparison, you and the councilmember should both be looking at other former company towns with small private colleges.

But I don't think you should bother. "Other towns don't have one" isn't her real argument; it's something she's throwing out there to obscure her real motivations (which I think I can infer from your question history). The more time you spend arguing about other towns, the less time she has to defend herself against the charge of using her public position for her own benefit, which is the heart of the issue here. It's a short jump from anti-ethical to unethical, and even shorter in the proverbial court of public opinion. Your side should be asking loudly and often why she's so interested in behaving unethically.

And if you really want to tie it back to the other towns thing, you can always say "well, those other towns don't need a code of ethics because their elected officials aren't as corrupt as you".
posted by kevinbelt at 6:50 AM on January 30, 2023

All excellent, helpful answers - thank you. For the record, her stated motivation is that the words "appearance" and "material interest" are so subject to interpretation that they could be used (in effect; my wording here) as a sword against the college/company, rather than as a shield against corruption. Other reasons: former city attorney, now accused of embezzlement, approved these proposed deletions; the city has often disregarded the law in the past; and - she finds it all so confusing.
posted by mmiddle at 7:23 AM on January 31, 2023