No Ethics Cost Money, Too

There are very few exercises of representative government more brutal than coping with a budget deficit.

Politicians engaged in the process like to talk about the necessity of “setting priorities.” What they don’t like to talk about is how those priorities get set. Sometimes, it has something to do with the merits of the outlay; at least as often, it has everything to do with the strength of the constituency for the expenditure at issue. Whatever the program, the stronger and more influential its constituency, the less likely it is to endure a crippling cut.

That may not always be good economics, but it is pretty good democracy.

The city of Los Angeles is struggling to come to grips with one of the worst budget deficits in memory--an estimated $120-million shortfall. As a consequence, Mayor Tom Bradley has imposed an emergency citywide freeze on hiring.

One of the victims of that order is the new city Ethics Commission, which is attempting to assemble the staff it will need to enforce the progressive, new governmental regulations enacted by the people of Los Angeles when they approved Measure H in last June’s election.

Those reforms hold the key to curbing the excessive influence of special interests over City Hall’s lawmaking process and to eliminating the conflicts of interest that have plagued the latest Bradley Administration with scandal. That promise will go unrealized, however, if the Ethics Commission is denied the staff it needs to enforce the law that takes effect next month.

Some in city government already have attempted to argue that every dollar spent on the Ethics Commission is a dollar that will not be spent on police, fire or other vital services.

This false juxtaposition, which was the centerpiece of the anti-Measure H campaign, is as empty and silly now as it was last June, when the voters rejected it. Even in these tough times, there is money both for safe streets and honest government.

Politicians who want to delude themselves into believing there is no popular constituency for ethical city government can get a bracing dose of reality by reviewing the results of last June’s election.