Admitting faults shows integrity

Integrity in our civic life, business and personal affairs is not

defined by an absence of moral ambiguities and conflicts. Integrity

also is attained through accountability for difficult choices, often

made under pressure. At times it is by correcting choices we get

wrong that we redeem our integrity.

We all sometimes fall short of our own standards. Real integrity

is earned the hard way, by staying a true course amid both the good

and not-so-good choices we make. Managing wrong choices and mistakes

with integrity is at least as important as taking credit for the good

choices we make.

Fear of accountability for our fallibility is part of what’s wrong

with the political discourse of our City Council, Design Review Board

and school board. There is an all-or-nothing mentality in our local

politics, reinforced by entrenched special interest groups that need

to justify their existence by prosecuting an aggressive and often

gratuitously antagonistic agenda.

Instead of just pointing the finger at others, however, let me

offer a testimonial with respect to my own fallibility, and the

redeeming power of accountability and integrity when we are wrong.

A few years ago I was retained by the presiding judge of one court

to advise on how to resolve a “turf” battle with the presiding judge

of another court. It was about control of budget resources and other

issues of judicial administration.

The other court hired a political consulting firm to promote its

position. Since I was acting as counsel to the court rather than a

lobbyist, the judge I represented asked me to retain a political and

government affairs consultant he had selected as my subcontractor.

This is a not an uncommon practice, but the tactics of the

lobbyist with the press were controversial. I retained the consultant

under my contract as a courtesy to the court, was not being paid in

connection that activity, and did not direct the consultant’s

efforts. Still, I became ensnared in the controversy because the

consultant was hired and paid as my subcontractor.

Instead of avoiding accountability, as soon as the court gave me

permission to talk to the press I got the real story out. It has been

embarrassing. Accountability for one’s fallibility is seldom

pleasant, but sometimes it is the only path to sustained integrity.

Ironically, there often seems to be a higher standard of

accountability at the national level than locally. However, even in a

small town denying fallibility and evading accountability will catch

up with you.

It seems local officials fear that revealing fallibility is a sign

of weakness. This often leads to refusal to admit mistakes or

compromise. My hat is off to the Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider,

but it is sort of sad that her creative accommodation of competing

interests in the village entrance project made headlines. Finding

practical solutions should not be so rare it is more newsworthy than

the problem solved.

The Design Review Board is a place where fallibility is admitted,

but neither the board nor the residents who feed that beast at each

other’s expense have accountability for the abuses that take place.

When local neighborhood or community groups gang up on a home or

business owner, it is like the Salem witch trials. The City Council

appeals process is even worse.

Now that people are starting to challenge the petty tyranny of the

process, Councilwoman Toni Iseman wants even more restrictive rules

for citizens speaking before these bodies than the rest of the

council. But respect and decorum can not be restored by making

frustrated citizens mind their manners, or by a Design Review Board

Task Force that turns out to be a charade. Accountability means real

reform.

For its part, the local School Board still thinks it got away with

something by slam dunking the Laguna Beach High School Alumni Assn.

and refusing any compromise on the high school name change. Even

after the League of Women Voters reported that the process was

flawed, the school board stonewalled.

The community sat still for that negative civics lesson, and this

clearly emboldened the school board to make policy by ambush on other

issues. We are all fallible, we all get it wrong sometimes, and

that’s when integrity is more important than being clever, shrewd or

vindictive.

Howard Hills

Laguna Beach