THIS is supposedly OK for "small town politics"? When Mayor of Wasilla, GOP Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin pushed agendas and projects that benefitted her and/or her family personally. Favorable zoning variances to allow for home sale, tax breaks for the industries her husband and father-in-law had interests in. Free gifts and services from local merchants.
I am unsurprised, as the weeks since her selection have been an unending stream of stories of her heavy-handed, bull-in-china-shop style as Mayor and Governor. The unethical behavior does not shock me. What bothers me is this:
James Svara, professor of public affairs at Arizona State University and author of "The Ethics Primer for Public Administrators in Government and Nonprofit Organizations," suggested such behavior is part of small-town politics.
I like to think I have some small knowledge of local municipal government. I will say only this: if any colleague of mine ever behaved this way, they would be run out of town on a rail. Not nominated for the second-highest office in the land. I don't know if Professor Svara thinks this is 1920 or 1960, bribes and kickbacks and backscratching have no place in today's local governance. To blithely accept them as endemic is a disservice to all of the aldermen, selectmen, councilmen, and others, male and female, who serve their communities well without resorting to this cheap mafioso behavior. To make that claim as an apologia for Sarah Palin is just wrong.
2 comments:
Perhaps it's the difference between NH 'Live free or die' politics and Chicago's 'vote early and often' politics.
I think it's the difference between ethical and not, but then I've never voted for an appointment to a committee in return for electoral support, or swapped bucks for a positive health inspection, so what do I know?
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