Indiana

Ethics Anyone?

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

The city of Indianapolis is closer to having a new code of ethics for public employees. The City-County Council?s Rules and Public Policy Committee unanimously passed an ethics reform package that had been pushed by the Mayor since this past Spring. The proposal now goes to the full Council and a vote is expected on Monday.

The original ethics proposal was amended to apply to both city employees and council members. A separate package will be drafted for the Council. The reform package is modeled after the state of Indiana’s rules. The current proposal includes the following?

• A ban on gifts and honoraria.
• A ban on engaging on political activity on government time.
• A requirement that all board appointees attend at least two-thirds of their agency meetings.
• A requirement that all city-county councilors, officials, agency heads and declared candidates for city-county council file an economic statement of interest.
• A ban on any part-time or other employment that would conflict with official city-county business.
• A ban on post-employment where the government employee would represent another party doing business with the city in that area where the employee previously worked.  However, the city attorneys can grant a waiver.
• A ban on nepotism; however this is going to be amended so that family can work in the same agency but they cannot hire each other.
• A prohibition on voting on any matter where the employee or official would have a financial conflict of interest.
• A ban on using government property for personal use.

There are also penalties for ethics complaints that are filed in bad faith.  Also, the Committee left out dealing with the issue of lobbying until it and Mayor’s office could work on more clear definitions for what constitutes the practice.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on August 07, 2008 (boomark / email).