After receiving a healthy dose of criticism for killing a
proposed ethics committee to monitor campaigning last week, the
Board of Supervisors did the right thing and opened the door to
reviving the idea on Tuesday. They will discuss an ethics committee
during their June 7 meeting.
After receiving a healthy dose of criticism for killing a proposed ethics committee to monitor campaigning last week, the Board of Supervisors did the right thing and opened the door to reviving the idea on Tuesday. They will discuss an ethics committee during their June 7 meeting.
Setting up an ethics committee that doesn’t become a tool to punish political enemies but does provide a process to ensure campaigns are financed and run according to campaign law will be hard work. But it is work that the Supervisors of a county with as poisonous a political climate as ours should take on.
Fearing the taint from the prior Board of Supervisors that originally proposed the ethics committee is shortsighted. While placing elected officials on such a commission creates an obvious conflict – one that clearly concerns the supervisors – there are ways around that.
Supervisor Anthony Botelho had the beginnings of some promising ideas on Tuesday, when he said he’d rather see organizations such as the Farm Bureau, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and Vision San Benito put together an ethics committee than have the government get involved.
As we have noted in the past, Gavilan College could also establish, appoint and operate the committee. Our local college should also create an ethics class that local politicians and candidates for office could take to learn the rules and regulations surrounding campaign law.
The bottom line is, the vitriol stirred up in the last year of political battles, lawsuits and endless mudslinging risk alienating voters and deterring good candidates from seeking political office. That’s a shame and a detriment to the progress we need to make as a county.
Now that they have reopened the discussion, Supervisors must commit themselves to doing the hard labor necessary to establish a committee that will restore the luster to San Benito County politics.
The supervisors must look beyond their political circles and do what is right for the people they represent. If they do, the community will thank them for their leadership.
To respond to this editorial or comment on this issue, please e-mail letters to
ed****@fr***********.com
.
