What’s The Point Of An Ethics Commission?

JC,
I am certain there are RINOs everywhere, but you would have to ask Marc Delmonico as to the various branding he deals with in Bridgeport. In the past election we had a public meeting for voters to hear the candidates. The local candidate, whose name appeared on the election-day ballot, never returned calls to speak, had no organization or street signs and obviously lost to a strong Democratic incumbent.

Now that the balance in Bridgeport looks to be about 9 or 10 to 1 (Democrat to Republican), except with some moving over from Democrat or Independent to Republican when a local candidate whom they support needs Republican primary support (Torres), there is no two-party system. The emergence of the Workers Party in the past two cycles is of note in that regard.

The ethics issue is separate I think. If, as is alleged often in this column, the current Mayor is overlooking Ordinances, regulations, low-standard Ethical imperatives, Civil Service procedures, and the public sees conflicts of interest in too many places etc. etc. then it is more indicative of the absence of check and balance mechanisms in the structure of municipal government. All power has gone to the top with less and less interference daily. That is the big sucking sound. No public scoreboards are kept as to money or people (except in arrears per audits) for the benefit of those trying to pay attention. Nobody knows nothing, except the very few who actually do, and they are not sharing. That is damaging to the system in the long run. And when your employment, or that of a family member, is under threat of discontinuance, you cannot expect any righteous pushback mechanism to be in operation.

Systems like this often require enough time to perform one or two actions so egregious that when the public hears about it, it’s too late to put on a parachute by the leader to escape responsibility, even if there is no FBI or other investigative body active and on site. However, when your local media have slashed their municipal coverage for their own reasons then it is fortunate when a blog becomes “the public media” substitute.

I can think of one similar institution locally that acts in somewhat similar regal fashion. The Diocese of Bridgeport is currently led by Bishop William E. Lori, neither selected nor elected locally but rather appointed nearly ten years ago by a structural leader in a foreign land. ( No worry about hanging chads or votes not getting counted.) Through institutional law (converted into CT Law by a handful and professional legal counsel) and promises of obedience from about 300 collared professionals, the Bishop holds effective control of the land, the buildings (churches and schools), the financial assets and funds, as well as the employees of all of the Catholic operations in Fairfield County. He even controls the dead bodies (cemeteries) as well as the living ones. Personally he claims to be a communicator but his blog has been under maintenance for most of 2010 and there are no listening or teaching sessions where dialogue and discussion can take place about the nature of the structure, its resources, its mission, etc. Bishop Lori does have press resources available, indeed an entire newspaper The Fairfield County Catholic, now a monthly, to show his picture, his chosen news and share his personal message, again with no institutional pushback. The institutional web site contains numbers from mid-decade claiming 460,000 members in addition to more recent numbers from 2008 claiming 410,000 members, a decreasing trend. With declining numbers of Baptisms and instruction or teaching of young children, with older members less regular in weekly attendance, and annual deaths exceeding RCIA evangelical efforts, the air is coming out of this structure rapidly. People are fired. Programs are terminated whether important to people in the pews or not. Limited financial supporting is the rule historically and the latest year covered is not current, 2008 although the Diocese is getting current monthly financial reports from each of 87 parishes. And though there will be no election in 2011 people care and notice what is fair and ethical. That is the similarity. And there is also the rub.

The leaders continue to move various chairs around on the deck of this titanic ship that hit the clergy sexual abuse iceberg for certain all around the world in the past decade. And good people (including many ordained clergy, men of integrity) prayerfully maintain hope that change will occur, that open and accountable behavior will become reality within a transparent institution. That would amount to change.

It takes faith, deep faith and a certain persevering and obstinate belief that change for the better not only can occur but that it will occur; and if not in our time, then later. And is this not the case with Bridgeport the municipality also?