City ethics is topic at TML convention

Kilgore City Clerk Karen Custer, left, with Ernie Clark, right, former interim city manager here with his son, Jeff, and his wife, Della, at last week’s Texas Municipal League convention in Grapevine. GRAPEVINE --Nothing is more important to a city than the services its supplies to its citizens, but these should be delivered in an ethical manner.

That was the message representatives of the city of Kilgore and from other Texas cities and municipalities received from keynote speaker Michael Josephson at last week’s Texas Municipal League convention.

Attending from Kilgore were Mayor Joe Parker, Mayor Pro Tem Janice Hancock, City Manager Jeff Howell, City Clerk Karen Custer, Utilities Supervisor David Hackley, Commissioners Don Lawler and Billy Bob Brady and Kilgore Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Amanda

Nobles.

Ethicist Josephson started the Joseph

and Edna Institute of Ethics in 1985.

“It promotes good character development in business and among young people,” he said. “I hope my determination to do the right thing helps many follow.”

Josephson said good communities “are ethical, safer, healthier, respectful, responsible, caring, law abiding and trusting.”

He pointed out that cities need to avoid being bad -avoid ignoring ethics.

“Because if you ignore ethics, the city is constantly subject to scandals and lawsuits,” he said. “No one has ever died from a lack of ethics but you’re playing with dangerous scandals when you don’t live up to ethical standards.”

Josephson said the motto for a ethical community should be “my word is my bond.”

He said on one of the biggest obstacles to ethical behavior is rationalizations.

“If you can take away people’s rationalizations, they are left with the determination to be good, and they will often change their conduct,” Josephson said. “We tend to start with conclusions and then justify them.”

Josephson said “passion and deep convictions, along with sincere convictions are needed for ethical communities to succeed.”

He warned attendees not to confuse the intensity of their feelings with the presentation of fact; to beware of relationships; and, face up to the real question, don’t rationalize beforehand.

Josephson presented an “ethics guide to help you keep at it.”

The guide includes ways to ethically avoid challenges for public officials such as:  Avoid illegalities;  Avoid accusations of wrong doing beyond compliance;

 Look for ways to anticipate and deal with issues;

 Prevent micro-managing from elected officials. Elected officials are not the CEOs of the cities;

 Do what makes most sense;

 When dealing with the media anticipate getting a raw deal or a view from a cynical lens;

 Manage budgets effectively and learn how to use money with sharply reduced budgets;

 Mediate between agencies or departments when budgeting funds; and

 Do the right thing, not the easiest thing.

“Ethics is not a factor to consider,” he said. “It’s a ground rule. Ethics is not just rhetoric.”

Josephson said there are some truths about ethics:

 Ethics is not about right or wrong, but is based on core moral principles;

 It’s not about the way things are but what they should be;

 There’s a big difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do;

 Pressure called temptation is a challenge to holding on to higher standards;

He said the public is looking for six basic things from public employees: Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.

He also said democracy is about conforming to laws but again this leads to ethical behavior.

“Public officials should consider projects that are of public interest; should use objective judgment; have accountability don’t work without an open or transparent government; be democratic; and be respectable -a lack of respectability leads to the appearance of impropriety,” he said.