Think about it. How many things that your local government looks after affect city dwellers on a daily basis? Sometimes they may seem fairly mundane, but there is little doubt that they have a direct impact on us. These include things that have to do with schools, public transit, roads, sewer and water systems, property taxes, urban waste disposal, policing and crime, medical facilities, first responders, etc., etc. Often local issues far outweigh even those issues under review at the national level, which can seem to be very distant and not always of any direct import to us.
We tend to put more trust in our local leaders, who generally are members of our communities and are easier to contact than one’s national government representatives. When something is a problem locally, municipal council representatives and urban administrators normally can be more easily accessed in order to file a complaint or raise an issue. Moreover, this ready access implies that one can trust local officials to respond to our needs and thus are more trustworthy.
However, this level of trust has been somewhat damaged in recent years. Much of this has to do with the rapid development that most urban centers are experiencing; be it with respect to housing, urban transit, infrastructure, green spaces, and other local developments. As a result, there is a large amount of possible profits to be made by developers. This is particularly true in California where a real estate boom drove political corruption, particularly in Los Angeles. Jose Huizar, a member of City Council had gained control of the influential committee that approves multimillion-dollar commercial development projects across the city. Reportedly, F.B.I. agents caught him accepting $1.8 million worth of casino chips, luxury hotel stays, prostitutes and a liquor box full of cash from Chinese developers. As reported by the New York Times, he will become the third recent Los Angeles City Council member to go down as part of corruption investigations. This is part of a much larger circle of staff aides, fund-raisers, political consultants and real estate developers who have been charged in what federal authorities called an “extraordinary” recent wave of bribery and influence-peddling across California . It is also reported that over the last 10 years, 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption and racketeering charges, including in San Francisco, South Gate, Bell, Lynwood and Vernon.
Why is it taking so long to uncover such corruption? Part of the answer may lie in the fact that fewer smaller cities and towns have local reliable media sources such as newspapers and radio stations. In larger centers, cutbacks in local reporting capabilities have led to a decline in investigative reporting. In addition, you may have large immigrant populations, largely marginalized communities that do not have the resources to watch their politicians closely. Increasingly, we have seen the need to have independent auditors to oversee the budgets and financial activities of municipal governments. Their duties are similar to what one sees at the state, provincial and national levels. In the U.S., unlike in Canada, municipal politics often involves political parties, Democrats or Republicans. When a political party controls councils for a lengthy period and enjoys uncontested power, there’s appears to be no real penalty for stepping over ethical or legal lines.
Unfortunately, corruption is most often discovered through more indirect means or third-party observation, particularly when it comes to influence-peddling. For the most part, representatives in municipal government tend to be trustworthy. However, the evidence has shown that some developers and businesses are prone to offering certain incentives to local officials in order to influence their choices for major developments and services. This is why it is so important to have independent oversight of matters related to urban policies, just as it is for those in higher levels of government. Without it, one risks the possibility of inappropriate decisions being made that will affect all of us locally. Given the number of critical services delivered locally, city governments do indeed have a good deal of responsibility and accountability.
FROLITICKS 