Ethics panel turnout deserves follow-up
It’s a drizzly Thursday evening in Spokane and you have some options. Curl up with a good book? Catch a baseball playoff game on TV? Drive downtown, find a parking place and check out that ethics forum at City Hall?
Ethics forum? On a weeknight?
The 100 or so people who picked ethics over entertainment Thursday didn’t add up to an army, but they represented a respectable turnout for such a topic at such an hour. It was a positive sign of civic interest.
More gatherings will be held, promised Breean Beggs, executive director of the Spokane Center for Justice, one of the convening organizations. The ultimate objective is creation of an ethics commission that could hold local government workers, including elected officials, accountable for improper conduct.
There are obstacles to be overcome, but the concept is compelling, especially in light of recent high-visibility controversies at City Hall and the Spokane County Courthouse: Spokane Mayor Jim West’s difficulties are well documented, and questions have arisen about nepotism involving County Commissioner Phil Harris’ three county-employed sons.
Thursday’s crowd honored Beggs’ admonition: The initial forum was not for airing specific cases but for hearing from Wayne Barnett, director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, about how such a panel might work. By their questions and attention, audience members acknowledged the need for better ethics oversight than now exists.
Understandably so. Over the years, medicine, law and other professions have begun to pay more attention to the study of ethics and the enforcement of ethical standards. In Washington, both state employees and legislators operate under the eye of ethics panels. As does Seattle. King County has an ombudsman.
Yet Americans keep hearing about Iran-Contra arms deals and Monica Lewinskys. Congressional leaders from Jim Wright to Tom DeLay find themselves in legal jams. Enron-like is the label hung on a parade of business scandals.
No wonder a roomful of Spokane-area citizens might invest a couple of hours in learning about putting a leash on the officials who are close enough to control.
It won’t be easy. Barnett’s commission is a $550,000-a-year operation, a hard sell in these budget-deficit days. Assuring the experience, credibility and independence necessary to make an ethics commission work is enough of a challenge in Seattle, more so in smaller, interconnected Spokane.
Those are good reasons for caution but not for rejection. An ethics interest that lured 100 citizens from the comfort of home Thursday evening is worthy of further, open-minded exploration.