Over the past year I have spent a lot of time working to establish the first ever Ethics Review Board for New Orleans. This is one of the first times in my life that I have been involved in setting something up from the ground floor.

Most of the time when you join an organization, or go on a board, things are set up and you fit in and become a part of it. This was not the case for the Ethics Review Board. When we began our work in January 2007, we were starting from scratch.

There is a long history that preceded the work of 2006 and 2007. In 1996, the City Charter was amended to establish an Ethics Review Board. After Katrina, the mayor’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission called for the enactment of the Review Board and in December 2006 the city council and mayor did just that.

To begin, the seven members had to elect officers. We had to establish meetings times and procedures. We had to conduct a search for the city’s first inspector general. We had to work with the city to establish the personnel positions for the office and what the budget should be like. In all this work we had a lot of help from civic organizations, the leadership of the city council and the support of the mayor.

We have done a lot in a short time. In a year we have hired one of the best known and qualified people to be inspector general. We have a budget from the city and we have offices. And we will soon have a staff in place and begin the work of the inspector general’s office and the Ethics Review Board. With the Governor’s Special Session, we now have the support of state law in the work of the inspector general and Ethics Review Board.

I think that work is important for the future of the city. Why? First, the resources of the city belong to the public. They are held in public trust.

So, the public is owed an account of how the public’s resources are used. The public has a right to know – to demand – that its resources are well used.

These resources are held in stewardship by the city and we should never lose sight of that. Not only should they be properly used, they should be used efficiently in the delivery of city services.

Second, when they are used inefficiently, poorly, or when they are stolen, those who suffer most are the poor. These are the people who rely on city services and they have no other means they can use to buy their way around the system when the system does not work.

So the delivery of city services is not only fulfilling the obligation to properly allocate the resources of the public, but it means there will be increased, and better, services to those who have the least voice.

Efficiency in the use of public resources is not only good stewardship – it helps to thwart corruption. When systems are inefficient or ineffective, they provide an incentive for people to try to find their way around the systems.

There is a third reason why this office is important to the city and the region right now. Good ethics is good business. People don’t often think that, but it is true.

Investors and businesses are drawn to regions where they know what the rules are and how the game is played. They are not drawn to invest in places where deals are done behind closed doors and in back rooms with secret rules by who knows who.

The development of good public ethics is an incentive for economic development. While I am sure Governor Jindal’s call of the Legislature into special session was about doing the right thing, one of the positive effects is that it establishes a climate of public trust that attracts businesses and investment to Louisiana. Good public ethics is the right thing, but it is also a key to Louisiana’s economic development.

Furthermore, good stewardship of public resources builds and reinforces public trust in the structures of government.

In the time since Katrina, there has been a loss of trust in the government. The ethics reforms of the city and the state are a first, and very important, step in renewing that trust. This effort is a cornerstone to building a new New Orleans and new Louisiana.

The Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J. is the president of Loyola University

and can be reached at [email protected].