Editorial

SCHOOL BOARD VOTE RAISES CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST QUESTION

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The Cape Girardeau Board of Education approved administrator, teacher and support staff salaries Wednesday night. The vote was seemingly routine, but lurking in the background was a conflict of interest accusation.

Three of the seven board members have spouses employed by the school district. The wives of both Steve Wright and Bob Fox are teachers at the high school; John Campbell's wife is a secretary at May Greene School.

Fox abstained from the teacher salary vote, Campbell from the staff salaries.

Despite his close connection, Wright voted yes on teacher salaries.

While it may be perfectly legal for Wright to vote on teachers salaries, we admonish Wright for his actions. It just doesn't look proper.

We urge the board to re-examine its conflict of interest guidelines. Members must avoid even the illusion of impropriety when it comes to appropriation of public tax dollars.

Not only did Wright vote on teacher salaries, but both he and Campbell serve on the finance subcommittee, which directly deals with salary discussions. As he was voting, Wright admitted that perhaps people with spouses employed with the district should not serve on the finance committee. Wright also pointed out the same would apply to Business Manager Larry Dew, whose wife is a teacher in the district.

We agree. The same rules should apply to everyone with a spouse employed by the schools.

In Kentucky, it's illegal for a school superintendent to hire any of his relatives or families of school board members -- much less vote on their salaries. This change took effect in 1990, thanks to the so-called nepotism law, according to a spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association.

Missouri should consider similar legislation.

The local board of education could also take some direction from the Cape Girardeau City Council, which struggled with ethics questions back in the early 1990s. In 1991, the council went so far as to reprimand then Mayor Gene Rhodes for failing to disclose his interest in an asphalt company that was awarded a city paving contract.

The city operates under a state code of ethics. But the council took matters a step further in April of 1992, adopting its own ethics ordinance as a way to better prevent conflict of interest.

The ordinance requires council members to disclose all possible conflicts. Then, they are prohibited from discussing or voting on any matter that involves that conflict.

It's as simple as that.

Even the Code of Ethics issued by the Missouri School Board Association tells members to "avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof."

Many companies thrive on families of workers -- giving relatives a step up on the hiring scale. There's nothing wrong with that. Many successful companies have built their success on this kind of family favoritism.

But not so for public entities that deal with tax dollars. Public officials, especially those elected, must operate on a higher standard of ethics.