Ethics Discussion Group with YIP

A City That Works - May 29, 2008

The Ethics Strategic Goal session had 5 participants. Participants grasped the exercise. They were vocal, opinionated and embraced the topic. They seemed to enjoy working together, and the conversation could have continued past the allotted time. -- Moderator Eddie Battle

What does this goal mean to you?

• Not being embarrassed by what I see in the newspaper (newspaper stories of corruption in city government).

• Follow-through by city officials on what they say. (City officials keeping their promises.)

• Seeing city departments with large enough budgets to do their
jobs, i.e. Inspector General Office, Board of Ethics, etc. All city
departments should have large enough budgets to do their jobs.

• The personal ethics of city employees should be increased.

• Ethics standards should be publicized.

• Move to a culture of fairness, transparency and openness to the public.

• Departments and staff need to meet universal, commonly held standards of ethics.

• Transparency.

• Charter change.

• No buffers around city officials.

Performance measures (What would success would look like?):

• More bad stories in the news, self reporting (by government) about problems in government.

• Knowing where to call with a problem, issue or request and getting an honest answer from the city.

• A Board of Ethics. The board should be accessible to the public.

Customer-service standards:

• Have a place to report ethical problems and getting something done about it.