Dear Interested Citizen-
It has been a year since the first public event conducted by the Citizens Commission for the purpose of beginning the dialogue, as a community, about the issues surrounding corruption and undue influence within local government bodies. In that time, as a Commission, we have continued to meet and discuss the circumstances, causes, and consequences related to the acceptance of corruption in the conduct of government activity. We continue to receive assistance and consideration from our sponsors such as the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce; The Paso Del Norte Group; and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The continued involvement of EPISO and Border Interfaith in our efforts and issues is also acknowledged and appreciated; this effort is a community engagement, as it must be to succeed.
In the first public forum, we found out that this is an issue that has galvanized the attention of individuals who believe that government process can be improved to direct it towards both efficiency and balance in conducting opportunity for contract services and other vendor related products that government, on behalf of the citizenry, seeks and secures for the benefit of all.
Engagement is the critical element for improvement to occur. A close affiliation with engagement is knowledge; education about the process; and awareness. The idea that our government will take care of itself by itself is a myth.
You may have already heard about the situation in Bell, California, where members of the professional staff of the City, as well as some members of the elected governing council, awarded themselves pay that far exceeds the boundaries of reasonableness; and, critically, this was awarded without much public discussion or disclosure before the fact. Whatever the facts prove out to be in Bell, California, the circumstances of Bell underscore what happens when the source of power in our system of representative democracy, the citizenry, chooses to forget or ignore the need to be engaged in what government does; how it does it; its purposes for doing it; and the influences for the decisions that are made.
In an article from the
Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2010, by Tamara Audi, "Bell Scandal Serves Up a Civics Lesson", a citizen of Bell, Ms. Laura Reyes, is quoted as saying, in response to Bell's governance issues, "I just couldn't stand by and do nothing", she says. "Maybe this is why we're in this situation now, we didn't ask the questions we should have years ago." The article goes on to point out the circumstances that likely produced the complacency-
"Residents may have assumed a false sense of well-being because the city continued to provide decent services and relatively safe neighborhoods. Bell is sprinkled with neat parks and athletic fields. Roads are freshly paved, and most sidewalks free of the graffiti and fliers that litter nearby cities.' "Everything was good, I thought," says Rodrigo Rodarte. "For 31 years that I lived here, I never went to a city-council meeting."
It is not easy work; but it is necessary work if we believe in preserving the benefits of the concepts of government and its governance contained in our Constitution and articulated in the Declaration of Independence. To really bear witness to the sacrifices and commitments made over 234 years ago and through present day to a philosophy of citizen governance, and to confirm the vision of the Founders of this nation, it takes work, attention, history and dedication to government in its pursuit of the best options; for the best purposes; for the benefit of the citizenry it serves. That is what citizen responsibility is about, given that the source of power and authority of our government remains with us, the citizen.
This is not a party issue, since parties are not the source of our government's power. This is not an issue of professional expertise, since the oversight of government is not necessarily the domain of experts. Instead, it is within our access as citizens to understand, to question, to evaluate, to assess, and to decide, whether in the form of voting, debating, presenting, proposing, or serving in some level of public service.
Over the last several months, we have witnessed ongoing issues in our local government applications that have their roots with the corruption investigation initiated by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office in 2006. Charges, confessions of guilt, and indictments have come out since that time, the most recent involving 11 individuals, elected officials most of them, as well as their attorney advisors. (A copy of the most recent indictment is available on the Commission's website).
The indictment's recitations allege circumstances and conditions that can affect the best intentions of elected individuals in fulfilling their duties, if it turns out that money was accepted for special considerations and favors. It also speaks to circumstances where citizens, if it turns out that they paid money for special considerations or favors as a means to conduct business with government, do so without consideration of limits and requirements for conducting business that should be available to anyone who qualifies and can render the service or product.
In the most recent indictment, a determination has not yet been made whether there was bribery and offers of bribes. But, the events and circumstances alleged provide an insight to situations where governance is challenged in balancing the power of the elected individual with the process for providing services in a manner that is beyond reproach. To avoid these conditions, requires active engagement; participation; awareness; involvement. This is the lesson to be learned from such charges.
There is a group out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that also bears a similar involvement to our evolving efforts as a Commission. It is called The Committee of Seventy, and they have been in existence since the early part of the 20th Century. They also have a website, where their history and activities can be accessed. The website is,
http://seventy.org. Their experiences have given our Commission a burst of energy and a sense of determination to continue the construction of a process that will begin to alter the corrupt practices and situations that are reflected in the admissions of guilt recorded to date as extracted from the corruption probe. The long existence of such an organization suggests to us as a Commission that the idea of best practices in government governance is an ongoing effort if is to take hold and succeed. It is not a sometime thing; it is not an event driven thing; it is an everyday thing.
We have just started on this project. But we are convinced that this is a project worth doing if we want to improve our economy and preserve our future as a region. A sound system of government governance is critical to such prospects. We hope to have the benefit of the insight from The Committee of Seventy at an event that we are in the process of planning. We invite you to visit our website for periodic updates on this event and the nature of the topics we hope to address. Last year was a start to a very serious commitment. This year is the beginnings of building that commitment into specific works. We are also working on other initiatives and affiliations that we will unveil as they are confirmed.
A good process takes time to develop; a sound government is always in development.
Enrique Moreno, Chairman
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