Stricter ethics rules proposed by DeSantis-check Trib story below

Stricter ethics rules proposed by DeSantis
By David M. Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_527987.html

Republican mayoral candidate Mark DeSantis pledged that if elected, he would “significantly strengthen” Pittsburgh’s ethics code, appoint an independent ethics “compliance officer” and publish information about city contracts and vendors on the Internet.
Taxpayers need clear and accessible information on all aspects of public spending, DeSantis said during a news conference Monday at his Downtown headquarters.
“You can’t have excellent government without accountability, and part and parcel of that is total and complete transparency,” DeSantis said.
He faces Democratic Mayor Luke Ravenstahl in the Nov. 6 election.
DeSantis, a consultant and president of a technology company, released a plan for achieving “accountability and transparency.”
The challenger didn’t refer to Ravenstahl or cite specific current ethics or transparency issues, although the news conference was a thinly veiled attack on the mayor, who went before the Ethics Hearing Board in August after accepting two free days of golf at a charity event. The board absolved Ravenstahl of violating the city code.
Ravenstahl responded that “strengthening our ethics code and enforcing and ensuring a high level of transparency in government are critically important.”
“My administration is working earnestly on both fronts. I am glad my opponent agrees,” he said in an e-mail.
DeSantis proposed appointing a retired judge as an ethics compliance officer to oversee conduct by city employees — including the mayor — as well as hold annual ethics training classes and hear reports of possible ethics violations.
The candidate promised to establish a “performance pledge” that sets benchmarks for the work of all city departments, based on the highest performance levels in other cities, and provide quarterly progress reports.
Requests for public information under the state’s Right-to-Know law would be expedited by appointing a worker in the city law department to handle all of those requests, DeSantis said. Most right-to-know requests should be handled within five days — and at the most, 15 days — he said.
His plan calls for posting on the city’s Web site “all the specific reasons why the city awards contracts to each vendor,” whether any vendors were political contributors to the mayor, and the campaign finance reports of the mayor and all city elected officials.