Let’s suppose in 10 years a future mayor of Coronado and two of the future council members (a majority) decide to secretly join forces with a private equity company, buy up three city blocks in the village, convert them to condos and change the law to allow both a zoning variance and daily rentals for those dozens of condos through Airbnb for their own secret personal profit.
Coronado’s municipal code of ethics does not require them to disclose these conflicts of interest nor recuse themselves from these decisions at City Hall while changing the laws and profiting from actions like this. A part-time lifeguard and full-time librarian are subject to the Coronado City code of ethics. But the mayor and City Council – astonishingly – are not. The code applies only to “employees who report to the city manager.”
A new state law known as the Levine Act requires local elected officials to publicly disclose gifts of $500 or more for decisions directly affecting those advocating at council meetings (known as “pay to play” laws). Coronado’s contribution limit of $200 means that threshold can’t be met, so that disclosure scenario would never apply here.
While the state ethics authority, the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) is tasked with legal oversight of local elected officials, its enforcement bureaucracy moves at glacial speed and requires information updates on financial conflicts from officials only once a year.
The FPPC relies on voluntary compliance. By the time the citizenry catches up to this type of secrecy, it’s too late. Residents of Bell, California, for instance, learned the hard way after a lack of ethics oversight allowed its elected officials to pillage the city treasury while state officials scrambled to catch up years later. That scenario actually happened and is not terribly different from the fictional one I imagine above.
Local ethics codes and ethics commissions are the customary and truest guardrails in California cities. Coronado currently has neither where our elected officials are concerned.
While in office, former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey potentially may have violated both Coronado laws and several California State laws. Bailey sent campaign mass mailings electronically on what appeared to be an official city communication using a Coronado City Mayor letterhead with his “election recommendations” containing mischaracterizations and outright untruthful allegations about candidates he opposed, disparaging their character and diminishing their public service and promoting his favorites in what appeared to be a city sanctioned communication.
This alleged act would normally be handled swiftly by a local city’s ethics code of conduct requiring a retraction and apology, but it was never acted upon by the Coronado special counsel as demanded by the harmed parties. Why? Because Bailey’s actions were not covered by the ethics code of conduct in the city of Coronado. He was exempt from those laws and constraints and there was no enforcement nor penalty.
The current mayor, John Duncan, and council members Amy Steward and Mark Fleming, violated their signed California Code of Fair Campaign Practices pledge during the election—also without consequence from the state.
The pledge demands candidates who sign it speak out against disparaging rhetoric, yet while the three of them benefitted from direct-mail “hit” pieces disparaging their opponents, none publicly denounce those mailers. None of the other candidates who ran for mayor or Council violated their signed ethics pledge.
You read that right. The city of Coronado does have an ethics code but it does not apply to the Coronado mayor or council members. That has to change. Coronado needs an ethics code of conduct that applies to our elected officials, and an ethics commission to monitor and enforce compliance as many other California cities do. State ethics laws look good in theory, but in practice the state doesn’t have the bandwidth to be a local watchdog as the last election showed. This is about trust in local government.
At its worst, an ethics commission can operate like the city of Chula Vista’s former ethics commission. “Advisory” only, it was stocked with friendly political patrons chosen by the mayor and council themselves, meeting irregularly and wielding powers similar to a Nevada Boxing Commission (in essence, zero).
The Chula Vista Ethics Commission has functioned more as a stalling mechanism for elected officials to stretch any alleged wrongdoing out beyond the statute of limitations (yes, that actually happened). And recently, a sitting councilmember was indicted and convicted of federal felony financial crimes while the Chula Vista Ethics Commission did nothing. Toothless, ineffective ethics commissions can breed unwarranted distrust and cynicism towards honest, forthright local elected officials. That is the opposite of what their mission should be, and it is what we should avoid in developing Coronado’s model for ethics reform.
The better model to look toward is the San Francisco ethics commission. Established by the voters themselves, their true independence comes from appointments by various officials — not just the city council — and with the requisite disciplinary and subpoena powers to investigate.
Ethics commissions can carry the responsibility and authority to censure and assess steep fines for proven acts of wrongdoing. They assure maximum transparency and accessibility to the public of campaign financing, including outside PAC contributions, and prevent conflicts of interest and other acts that would damage confidence in our elected officials. Those trusted commissioners are qualified professionals who act in the best interest of the public – not merely in the best interest of elected officials.
Assuring transparency and accountability are the keystones of public integrity. To operate in the public trust, you maintain independent verification for compliance of the ethical conduct required of sitting officials. Watchdogs help us sleep better at night. A truly empowered ethics commission helps citizens trust that enforcement of these rules will happen. It instills faith and renewed confidence in our public officials, and allows them to truly succeed in their duties. That is what we want for our elected officials.
That is why Coronado citizens, led by local attorney Christine Mott, have drafted a petition on Change.org https://bit.ly/92118ETHICS asking Coronado voters to join us to ask the council to enact ethics reform. Ronald Reagan often repeated the adage “ Trust– but verify.” To be able to verify proper conduct and assure public trust, Coronado needs both an ethics code to guide our council and an empowered ethics commission to enforce it. Let’s get started.
Laura Wilkinson Sinton is the co-founder of StopTheSewage.org and a community organizer. She lives in Coronado with her husband and two rambunctious Australian Shepherds they are fostering for an active-duty Navy couple.
