Just 2 weeks ago, the Denver Broncos took the field in Super Bowl 50 and defeated the Carolina Panthers. It was a total team effort, taking the talents of 53 players who worked as a unit to accomplish the task.
On March 8th, 55 people will take on the task of proposing and writing ethics guidelines for elected and municipal employees in Palm Springs. Yes, you read right. 55 people!! More people will be on the commission than on an NFL roster!! Utter fallacy and nonsense. New members to the council want to be inclusive. But they were elected for their judgement as well and they should be able to whittle down the list to a reasonable size after hearings.
I understand the need for an ethics commission. And of course, let's have a tip of the hat to all who joined. I have served on 2 municipal commissions in the my time. So I know it takes time. But those commissions had 10 and 7 members respectively. Not 55!! Are future meetings to be held at Palm Springs Stadium?
The large amount of members will dilute the pool and make it hard for the most glaring need to be addressed. And that of course is placing a limit on campaign contributions. The insane amount of money spent by Harold Matzner in the last election, even though some of his proxy's lost , should never be allowed to happen again. With little work groups, split into sub sections, it is a recipe for disaster.
Perusing the list of members, I also see a few who want to run for council in 2017. Now I can guarantee you that some of these characters will at some point tout this "experience" when they run. Joining is a cheap way to pad the old resume for future elections.
Palm Springs needs a real functioning Ethics Commission. Not some Potemkin Village type of Commission that satisfies the Desert Sun Editorial Board and ONE PS members but in reality accomplishes little. To quote Shakespeare, 55 people on one board constitutes, "Sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Steve Kelly can be reached at skelly@rrbroadcasting.com and followed n Twitter @skellynj
A dozen good people would have been more than enough. And if the Commission doesn't undertake Charter reform, it will be of little real value.
ReplyDelete