WHAT IS NEEDED FOR REAL ETHICS REFORM

April 30, 2007

The conviction of Senator John Ford points out the problems and the difficulties of controlling corruption in local and state politics. Does anyone doubt that after serving his jail time, if he does in fact go to jail or does not have his conviction overturned on appeal, that John Ford could and probably would run for public office again and get elected. Also the same for Ricky Peete, Edmund Ford and others. This says volumes about the electorate. The public interest, honesty and integrity are low on the voters list of items to appreciate about the candidates. Charisma, phony promises and backroom deals mean more. Therefore, watchdog believes that the single most important thing that needs to be done to improve public ethics is open records and transparency in government. All requests for proposals (bids), all responses to those RFP’s (request for proposals), all purchase orders resulting from the bids, the selection process for awards and the reasons for the selection, and all purchases orders should be available in real time on the internet. Also all professional contracts should be advertised and bid and the results put on the internet. Furthermore all salaries, benefits, overtime and pensions should be public information and available on the internet. The contributions to candidates for elected office and their expenditures should be required to be put in electronic form so that a data base could be made available to determine who is contributing to whom and how the money is being spent. There are many other improvement to the City Charter that are listed below but open records and transparency in government is the most important factor in controlling and revealing corruption.

• A charter section like the Shelby County charter sections which allow citizen generated referendums like the voters used in 1994 to set term limits on County Commissioners.
• An open records charter amendment requiring election commission reports of donations and expenditures to be submitted electronically in spreadsheet format so that they can be entered into a unified database and published for notification and verification of information. All required election commission documents detailing contributors to and expenditures from all local elected officials needs to be put in an electronic data base so that the public can tell who is contributing to whom and how the contributed money is being spent.
• TERM LIMITS- Prevent elected officials from getting the tenure that gives them the position to sell their influence to developers and other buyers of political influence exhibited by Tennessee Waltz and Main Street Sweep.
• NO SALE OF MLGW WITHOUT VOTER APPROVAL- Because MLGW is piling up cash at the ratepayers expense, politicians want to get their hands on the cash. As of December 31, 2005, MLGW had $167 million in unrestricted cash, up from $111 million in one year. The law says that any surplus remaining after establishment of proper reserves, shall be devoted solely to the reduction of rates. Also the board of MLGW should be expanded to seven or more members to include members from the largest Shelby county cities outside Memphis such as Germantown, Collierville and Bartlett, those members to be appointed by the Mayors of those cities.
• THIGHTEN ETHICS RULES- No election official should be able to serve if he benefits from any contract involving City taxpayer money even if he recuses himself from voting on that particular contract or issue.
• PENSION REFORM- the January 2001 pension change has cost millions of dollars to date and will go on costing millions more as these elected and appointed officials retire. Since hardly any of the taxpaying public who work in private industry has a defined benefit pension plan anymore, a defined contribution plan should be instituted in the future for all newly hired public employees.
• OPEN RECORDS- The following should be put on the internet promptly. All RFPs (Request for Proposals), replies to RFPs, contracts, purchase orders, related correspondence and selection justification. All professional contract awards with related correspondence. All building projects, related contracts, purchase orders, change orders and correspondence e.g. the FedEx Arena and the Cannon Center and school projects. All salaries, benefits, pension details, land deals and minutes of meetings. All budgets, financial statements and audits. Only by making open records access easier, can we keep the sunshine on government practices which politicians like to conceal. The current no bid purchase orders given under the ACS contract shield is an example of gross abuse and lack of transparency in bidding and awarding contracts.
• APPOINTEES- There are over 400 appointees whereas the charter, according to Sara Hall’s reading, only allows about 110. This needs to be defined and limited to much less. The January 2001 pension resolution allowing elected and appointed officials to collect pensions and health benefits after only 12 years regardless of age has already cost millions and has the potential to cost $60 million if all of the current eligible elected and appointed people retire under that provision.
• RESTRICT ELECTED OFFICIALS FROM VOTING MEMBERSHIP ON CITY AND COUNTY BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS- This is where the influence peddling starts and needs to be stopped.
• CONTRACTING AUTHORITY- Prohibit the Mayor, any Mayor, from signing any contract unless it has been approved and funded by the City Council.
• Reinstate a separate non political Park Commission as it was previously constituted before the City Council dissolved it to its detriment.

This can be done and passed if only the Charter Commission has the courage and resolve to propose it for the voters. If we can bombard them with enough email and letters and calls, they may be forced to put these items on the ballot and let the voters decide.

Joseph N. Saino
6560 Kirby Forest Cove
Memphis, Tennessee 38119
754-0699