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candidates (and many candidates run unopposed). <br />Three, voting an official out of office is a harsh penalty for most ethics violations. The <br />enforcement-at-the-polls argument assumes that someone who violates an ethics provision <br />lacks integrity, rather than that she lacks good judgment and access to good ethics advice. <br />Four, most officials are not elected. <br />7. Transparency <br />Considering that transparency is one of the two related areas of government ethics (along <br />with campaign finance), a government ethics program should be as transparent as possible, <br />taking into account fairness to officials making use of the program or being accused of ethics <br />violations. Too often, requirements of confidentiality create an aura of secrecy that, to the <br />public, makes it appear that an ethics commission is tivorldng behind closed doors in the <br />interest of officials. Such an impression undermines the public's trust in the ethics program. <br />8. Ethics Reform <br />Those interested in establishing or improving a local government ethics program should read <br />the Ethics Reform cha�ter of my liook Local Government Ethics Pro9rams. The principal goal of <br />the book is to provide the information needed to know how to create or reform a local <br />government ethics program. <br />In ethics reform, it is best to start with all the features of a comprehensive, <br />independent ethics program, and then decide which provisions are inappropriate for the <br />community, which features of an ethics program the community cannot afford, and which <br />provisions are already covered well at the state le�-el or are not permitted by state law. <br />26 <br />