More Conflicting Interests
You’ve already heard me talk about potential conflicts of interest with tonight’s Council vote on the public safety tax, however there are much bigger issues to consider beyond the tax.
Having government employees serve on the same board that oversee them can turn into a land mine of problems. What if a government employee wants to trade a vote for a day off? What if a supervisor wants to discipline someone, but is afraid to because they serve on the local finance committee and has oversight their agency?
The response to this argument is usually people saying that the public knows what government employees do for a living and they can make the call at the voting booth. The problem with that is that while it may be easy to know if someone is voting for a pay raise, it takes a little more effort to find who got a vacation day in exchange for voting for a tax abatement.
I’m not saying this is happening, but can we really say for sure it doesn’t?
