POLITICIAN WATCH : Higher Standard

A former mayor has just been acquitted by a jury in a conflict-of-interest case brought by the Orange County district attorney’s office. It’s a cause for celebration for him. But for the rest of us, it’s also an instructional tale: For what may not be illegal is not necessarily right.

Nobody disputes that former Mayor Wayne D. Wedin, an economic development consultant by trade, lobbied while a member of the Brea City Council to get a planning contract for an engineering firm with which he had had a relationship. The lobbying occurred after the city planning staff endorsed two other firms. Before concluding any agreement, Brea backed off.

Wedin had done some work for the firm, the Keith Cos., on a project in San Diego. The question of the way that work was structured--whether his financial relationship was with governmental agencies in San Diego or with the firm--was a pivotal technical issue in the trial.

But technical issues aside, public officials who bring their private business associations to the public’s planning table are inevitably targets of suspicion. The yellow light ought to flash in their minds well before a matter gets to the stage of a criminal conflict-of-interest accusation.

Public officials ought to anticipate troublesome areas and avoid even the appearance of conflict.

In this season when freshman legislators-to-be are contemplating their upcoming responsibilities, the city of Brea offers a political ethics lesson: When drawn ever closer to the gray areas of political conduct, head in the other direction.