ICMA Code of Ethics Discussion

ICMA President Ed Daley, Past President Tom Lundy and ICMA International staff member Diane Crosby led a discussion on the ICMA Code of Ethics. Issues of corruption are real here at all levels of government and it has been important in the formation of the city manager associations here that the issue be discussed and strategies for addressing the problem developed. The Code of Ethics does all of this, but the concept is very foreign here. The presenters did a great job talking about the content of the Code, the importance of on-going training and the importance of having local elected officials understand the importance of their staff following an ethics code. Our Indian counterparts had many excellent insights on all of this. They observed the difficulty of getting buy in from electeds because the City Manager is appointed by the state and not the local authority, so why should the electeds care. The best observation of the day was that increasing efficiency in government would like cut down on corruption, making the introduction of a Code of Ethics that much easier.

A note about the flags on the table. The Indian and US flags are easy to recognize. The other two flags are from the State of Tennessee and the City of Alcoa, TN complements of Committee Member Bill Hammond from City of Alocoa.