CN: I see your point. I understand that two data points don't make a trend, but if another committee resigns and appoints another lawyer, then my cynical radar is really going to go off (plus I know a lot of people who don't think the words "lawyers" and "ethics" can be used in the same sentence
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I'm glad to see that the Ethics Commission is going to include at least a couple of people from outside the courthouse, but then, attorneys tend to do a lot of their business at the courthouse. So, are they really objective?
I'd like to see a few more who don't work there, and don't have daily dealings there. You know, someone really objective. That said, I think that Mr. Iwanski and Mr. Shelton have done the right thing by trying to be more broadly inclusive.
This committee will work like Commission. It is entirely too large to ever get them all to agree on this. Iwanski appointed Bill Allen. Bill is a great person but still a lawyer who will disect everything and nothing will ever get done. Tim felt that community involvement should be present. The Law Director set this up and decided who should participate on the committee. As Jacket stated before, there is not a mandate for this many people. There is confusion in numbers. Maybe we overdue everything so that nothing can ever be accomplished.
You'al have hit the nail on the head. To go from elected officials to lawyers constitutes no change at all. They could have even compounded the problem. The one good thing is the Law Director will have other people who know the law and could possibly know it better than he. The way I view it is get common peope who work in the real world involved and let them tell you what is ethical and what is not. Lawyers and elected officials see things from a different perspective than people in the corperate work force. The lawyers tend to read too much into things and the elected officials have to cover their ars.
CN: I see your point. I understand that two data points don't make a trend, but if another committee resigns and appoints another lawyer, then my cynical radar is really going to go off (plus I know a lot of people who don't think the words "lawyers" and "ethics" can be used in the same sentence
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I couldn't agree more about loading the committee with lawyers. Just a couple to keep them out of trouble. CYA, that is what lawyers are for.
Besides that committee is too large to be effective.