"Public Corruption is a Cancer"

Let's first acknowledge the problem. When our community has scores of people on FBI target lists, El Paso has one of the largest public-corruption investigations in the United States.

Our choice is clear: Fix it ourselves, educate a generation on strong ethics and rid our community of public corruption, or let the FBI do it every generation.

The problem is ours. Let's deal with it now, and not pass it on.

Public corruption presents a vicious cycle. Bribes are offered and accepted. Public officials use their public office for private gain; and businesses compete only for influence -- not for better quality of goods or services.

Over time, bribes go up and quality of services goes down --and El Paso simply fails to compete with other cities in Texas.

That is the cost of public corruption -- to every single one of us. That is why we need to deal with it now.

In June 2007, our office worked together with many community leaders, elected officials, law enforcement and business groups to tackle this very serious problem. Several of us signed "A Contract with El Paso for Ethical Government" setting forth an agenda to:

·         Create a commission on ethical government that would be given the authority to investigate and advocate best practices in ethics, contracting, whistleblower protection, civic participation and other critical policy areas;

·         Immediately report misconduct to proper law enforcement authorities;

·         Promote open government by making all public meetings --no matter how seemingly insignificant -- accessible to the public through television and/or the Internet;

·         Strengthen financial transparency by our public officials and in our public institutions through easily accessible finance and ethics reports; and

·         Increase civic participation by devoting time each year to promote nonpartisan voter education initiatives aimed at increasing local voter awareness and voter turnout.

At the county, County Attorney José Rodríguez and County Commissioner Veronica Escobar convened stakeholders to craft a state-of-the-art ethics commission as the first of several steps needed to clean up regional government.

The legislation, SB 1368 and HB 2301, has already passed the Senate and the House's County Affairs Committee because of strong leadership from Rep. Marisa Marquez, constructive ideas from District Attorney Jaime Esparza and support from Reps. Joe Pickett, Chente Quintanilla and Joe Moody.

Rodríguez, Escobar and County Commissioner Anna Perez have also been fierce champions for this legislation in Austin.

Under SB 1368 and HB 2301, a county ethics commission may adopt, publish, and enforce an ethics code for county public servants modeled after any ethics laws in the United States or Texas.

The legislation requires the commission to provide the public with information on the commission and the ethics code.

The legislation also requires vendors or lobbyists to complete training on the ethics code before submitting bids or otherwise contracting or meeting with county officials. SB 1368 and HB 2301 authorize the commission to issue and enforce a cease-and-desist order to stop a violation, or impose civil penalties for a violation of the ethics code.

While many cities like Austin and Seattle have long used ethics commissions, counties may only do so under powers granted to them by the State of Texas. That is why SB 1368 and HB 2301 are so important. For the first time, these bills give the power to El Paso County to deal with pervasive public corruption.

So, we say let's pass SB 1368 and HB 2301 and deal with corruption now. For El Paso to compete, attract investment and create jobs, we need to end the vicious cycle. Let's deal with corruption now, and make tomorrow better for our children, and our future.