CONTACT:
Jennifer
Freeman
(518) 474-4015
FOR RELEASE:
Immediately
March 18, 2010
DiNAPOLI: IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED IN MUNICIPAL
ETHICS LAWS
Proposes Legislation and Provides Model
Code of Ethics to Guide Local Officials
State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today
proposed legislation to strengthen municipal ethics laws after an audit
identified widespread differences in how local governments around New York
State oversee financial disclosure rules and enforce other ethics requirements.
He also released proposed legislation and provided materials, including
a model
code of ethics,
to help local officials understand ethics and conflicts of interest requirements.
“New Yorkers should have faith and confidence
in their government,” DiNapoli said. “My first priority since taking
office was to re-instill ethics and accountability in the Comptroller’s
Office. I’ve done that. But there’s still much to be done to restore
the public’s trust. The Governor and the Legislature should redouble
their efforts to improve the ethical climate in state government. In the
meantime, I’ll continue to work with our local government partners to
improve local ethics compliance.
“Our auditors found that some municipalities
fail to comply with existing rules and aren’t providing adequate training
to staff so they recognize and address potential ethical problems. The
overwhelming majority of municipal officials are honest and dedicated public
servants, but they need to do more to reassure the public that they are
acting in the taxpayers’ best interest. We are giving them the tools to
do just that.”
Article 18 of the state General Municipal
Law requires most local governments to adopt codes of ethics to set the
standards of conduct for officers and employees and to distribute these
codes to them. Counties, cities, towns or villages with populations of
50,000 or more must require some officials and employees to file annual
financial disclosure forms. These disclosure forms should be reviewed by
appropriate officials to help identify any potential conflicts of interest.
DiNapoli’s office completed an audit
of 31 municipalities and surveyed hundreds of top local government officials
and found significant differences in local officials’ awareness of and
compliance with ethics laws, including:
- Twenty municipalities required certain officials
and employees to file annual financial disclosure forms to identify potential
conflicts of interest, 12 municipalities did not collect all the forms,
nine did not make sure the forms were complete, and 14 did not review the
forms to identify conflicts
of interest;
- Five of 20 boards of ethics had not convened
for periods ranging from two to 11 years, and one county board has never
convened;
- All 31 municipalities had adopted codes of
ethics, but only 26 of these codes addressed all of the ethics topics required
by state General Municipal Law. 13 percent of the CEOs surveyed responded
that their municipalities had not adopted codes of ethics at all or that
they did not know whether a code existed; 61 percent of the local governments’
codes did not address misuse of municipal resources, 45 percent did not
address recusal, and 84 percent did not address the hiring and supervision
of relatives; all issues that local officials and employees may face on
a regular basis;.
- Sixteen percent of surveyed CEOs reported
either that their code of ethics had not been distributed to all officials
and municipal employees, or they did not know whether it had been distributed.
The audit found that 52 percent of the municipalities had not distributed
their codes to all officers and employees, as required; and
- More than 80 percent of the
municipalities audited provided no ethics
training to their officers and employees. Only 56 percent of local officials
or employees in municipalities of 25,000 or more surveyed responded that
they had ever attended training on ethics. This percentage dropped to 45
percent for respondents representing smaller municipalities.
The municipalities
included in the audit were the Cities of Schenectady, Troy, White Plains
and Rochester; the Counties of Columbia, Chenango, Tompkins, Chautauqua,
Clinton, Montgomery, Nassau, Westchester, Monroe and St. Lawrence; the
Towns of New Baltimore, New Scotland, Barker, Union, Cheektowaga, South
Valley, Smithtown, Greenburgh, Greece, Mt. Morris and Clay; and the Villages
of Perry, Broadalbin, Plandome Heights, Shoreham, Kiryas Joel and Waterville.
Individual letters sent to each municipality can be found at http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/swr/index.htm.
Comptroller staff received survey responses from 149 CEOs and 217 top officials
and employees from the 418 municipalities and school districts that were
contacted.
DiNapoli is proposing legislation to strengthen
the current ethics laws and address some of the concerns highlighted in
the audit and survey including:
- Strengthen codes of ethics by expanding the
issues that must be addressed to include provisions nepotism about the
use of public resources for personal or private purposes;
- Require local governments to annually review
and update their codes of ethics;
- Require prompt distribution of the code to
all officers and employees and require them to acknowledge that they have
received and read it;
- Ensure that Boards of Ethics are more independent
of their appointing boards;
- Require training for board members on their
roles and responsibilities;
- Clarify that a municipality’s Board of Ethics
has responsibility for interpreting and enforcing the code of ethics, and
for collecting, reviewing and enforcing requirements related to annual
financial disclosure statements;
- Authorize Boards of Ethics to investigate
complaints made by citizens and to conduct ethics training for employees;
and
- Authorize Boards of Ethics to impose civil
penalties for violations of the conflicts of interest law and of the code
of ethics.
Since taking office in 2007, DiNapoli has
implemented a number of new ethics requirements
in the Comptroller’s office and changed procedures
for how the pension fund is managed and disclosures information. He has
also been a strong proponent of campaign
finance reform and pushed for public
financing of campaigns.
Click here
for a copy of the audit or visit http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/swr/2010/ethics/ethicsoversight.pdf.
Click here
for individual letters sent to municipalities included in the audit or
visit http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/swr/index.htm.
Click here
for the model code of ethics or visit http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/codeofethics.pdf.
Click here
for the FAQs or visit http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/codeofethicsfaq.pdf.
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