"Fresh start"

I never picked a side in the race to select the next Inspector General. I did offer several times to do the job myself but I am afraid my salary demands may have been a bit too high.

I do find it interesting,  however, that the board chose the candidate who does NOT have a history of siding with the independent police monitor,  who does NOT have a record of asking troublesome questions of even his superiors and who admits that, as a newcomer to the city, he will have to undergo a "learning curve" with regard to the local political landscape. But they say having a "fresh start" is important to them so I guess this will do that.

“I think given where we are coming from, we need a fresh start,” said Elizabeth Livingston de Calderon. The office has “an opportunity for changeover, and I would like to see that happen for us here.”

Harper acknowledged that he faces a “learning curve,” being an outsider in an often insular city, but he pledged to work with members of the community to produce results.

“My prime directive is, I can’t do this alone,” he said. “It’s to identify problems and fix them. It’s to restore, and to earn the trust and respect of this community, and make a difference.”

LOL "prime directive." Ok, nerd. Also looking to "restore and earn trust" is the Ethics Review Board itself. They can't wait to get a fresh start with the new guy seeing as how the old one was really starting to nag some of them.

Separately Wednesday, the Ethics Review Board took pains to cast itself as above reproach, in light of claims from Quatrevaux this past week that Miller, a lawyer who is the board’s chairman, had improperly represented the Sewerage & Water Board, an agency the IG’s office oversees, while serving on the ethics panel. Miller was critical of a report Quatrevaux released this year strongly attacking the S&WB.

Miller chairs a board that oversees the IG who oversees a different public board who happens to be his client. There's a hell of an ethicsy problem for our new guy to chew on.  I hope that leaning curve isn't too much for him.

The ethics paradox

The problem is if you have risen to a place in the social and professional hierarchy where you are held in high regard by the plutocrats who nominate people to the "Ethics Review Board" that's a sure sign that you are pretty well ethically compromised already.

Only one member, James Brown, an attorney who works for the law firm Liskow & Lewis, disclosed a financial relationship with a city agency. The Lens was unable to find city transactions involving Boutin, Frampton or their employers.

Cowan works for Loyola University, which had at least four city contracts during the relevant period. He did not respond to a request for comment about his questionnaire.

Neither did Miller, an attorney at Phelps Dunbar, a law firm that frequently does business with the city. Miller also defended city contractor American Traffic Solutions in a federal case challenging the constitutionality of the city’s red-light camera program. The city was a co-defendant in the case. Miller disclosed none of that in the questionnaire.

Ricks, the chairman of Xavier University’s Division of Business, submitted his questionnaire in July 2013, just a few months after Xavier donated several parcels of land to the city. The land donation facilitated the construction of a $3 million publicly funded pedestrian bridge over Washington Avenue, a project the university had long sought to complete. On the questionnaire, Ricks wrote that he did not work for an entity that does business with the city.

But remember, these are the Grown Ups and they are in charge so it's all good.