After a slew of ethics violations committed by city employees last year, Alexandria officials moved quickly to address the problem: setting up an ethics committee, making it easier for whistle-blowers to alert the city, and increasing ethics training for employees.
Unlike the District’s government on the other side of the Potomac, change happened quickly in Alexandria.
In D.C., the council chairman and Mayor Vincent Gray are under federal investigation over alleged campaign finance violations. Gray faced threats of a recall just months ago. And though the city council voted in December to create a new ethics board to address official misconduct, Gray has over the last five months failed to appoint anyone to serve on it.
Alexandria has weathered a tumultuous year as well.
City employees were charged with everything from embezzlement to assault and battery. Officials established an ethics committee in June and, after two city employees were charged with embezzling city funds in August, stressed the need for a training program to deter employees from committing violations.
“Dealing with it quickly was important — letting people know we wouldn’t tolerate this, that we would prosecute,” said Bruce Johnson, the city’s chief of staff. “We just try to get everyone on board with what the expectations are.”
Alexandria’s new city manager, Rashad Young, took on the city’s ethics issues shortly after arriving in December. Under his guidance, the city updated its ethics rules, set up an online ethics training program and established an anonymous whistle-blower hotline for employees.
Alexandria’s rapid response stands in start contrast to the District’s handling of its ethics problems, which the city staff last year reported were at least partly to blame on an ethics law that was inconsistent and outdated. The council agreed to form the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability, though the first deadline for the appointment of members passed without action in mid-March.
Ethical matters are currently shuttled between the Board of Elections and the Office of Campaign Finance, but city staff say time is running out to establish the board and its staff before its Oct. 1 deadline.
