To say that Springfield city government has had an ethics deficit in recent years is a gross understatement, with the emphasis on gross.
While the city's economic base was crumbling, a shameful number of public officials took the opportunity to loot what remained in its coffers – extorting from city contractors, committing tax fraud, setting up no-show jobs, outright stealing. Things improved dramatically with the election in 2003 of Mayor Charlie Ryan and the successful federal prosecution of some of the worst offenders. But while the exploiters might have been kept largely at bay (some of them in prison), they certainly haven't gone away for good, and the threat that they will try to worm their way back into the workings of city government remains.
Pat Markey began thinking about ways to shore up the city's defenses against corruption a few years ago, when he served as Ryan's city solicitor. Now a freshman city councilor, Markey and colleague Bruce Stebbins have proposed an ethics ordinance that they hope would introduce a long-overdue degree of transparency to Springfield's government.
The ordinance would require elected officials, commission members and department heads to file detailed financial disclosure reports to ensure that they don't stand to profit from city business, such as contracts or development agreements. They would also be barred from advocating for any matter in which they have a financial interest.
One especially promising component of the ordinance would require anyone who lobbies city government – called "municipal agents" in the ordinance – to register with the city clerk. "It's important to identify who the lobbyists are, so we can track their campaign contributions, and then you can track the voting records of the city councilors," Markey says. "It's not going to bar any councilors from accepting a cash contribution from a lobbyist, but it will make it more transparent."
Of course, bad guys, by definition, won't suddenly take to the straight and narrow just because there's an ordinance on the books telling them to. "If you want to be sneaky when you're a lobbyist, you can get your cousin to make the contribution," Markey acknowledges.
Still, the ordinance would go a long way in helping the public, and the media, follow the money. "We're a big city with a big budget," Markey says. "We're not a town-meeting form of government where residents can keep track of what their neighbors are doing."
The ordinance incorporates elements from the state's ethics rules, particularly the sections pertaining to lobbyists. It also borrows from ethics rules in Chelsea, which in the 1980s experienced a similar downward spiral – corruption and financial distress, followed by state intervention – to what Springfield has experienced in recent years.
Markey and Stebbins plan to introduce the ordinance at the Council's May 5 meeting. In the meantime, they'll be canvassing their fellow councilors, as well as Mayor Domenic Sarno, for support. Markey hopes the Council will vote in favor of the ordinance at the meeting, rather than send it off to committee, where too often proposals languish and die.
"I think it's something everybody agrees with in principle," Markey says. "It's difficult to come out in opposition to full disclosure and ethics. I'm not sure what arguments you'd marshal against an ethics ordinance." The rules wouldn't create an onerous workload or cost the city money, Markey adds; the city clerk would oversee the registration process, and lobbyists would be required to pay a $500 fee.
David Panagore, the city's chief development officer, supports the ordinance. He sees it as an important part of the ongoing work to reverse Springfield's reputation for corruption and mismanagement, which has left many investors wary of sinking capital into the city. While city residents can see the progress that has been made, he said, the news takes longer to travel.
"Ordinances like this help folks on the outside see that things have really turned the corner," and could be a boon to the city's economic development and marketing efforts, Panagore says.
