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Ethical Guidelines(adopted October 3, 2001) Contents Purpose of Code The Legislative Information and Communication Staff Section of NCSL began discussing the importance of ethics in the legislative communications profession as part of a roundtable discussion on nonpartisan communications at the 1999 LINCS Seminar in New Orleans. As an outgrowth of those discussions, 2001 LINCS Chair Sheila McCant appointed a committee to develop a model set of ethical guidelines that could be used by legislative information and communications professionals across the nation. The LINCS Ethics Committee met continually via e-mail between April and August in 2001. The committee examined other model codes, pulling together elements and ideas that seemed to address relevant ethical issues in the profession. A proposed set of guidelines was developed by the committee and approved by the LINCS Executive Committee in October 2001. The members of the LINCS Ethics Committee gave a great deal of their time and attention to the development of these guidelines. Their dedication and diligence is evident in the final work product. It is hoped that these guidelines will serve as a useful tool for training and managing legislative communications staff for years to come. Mitchell S. McCartney
Chair Members Ben Kohrman Penelope S. Silletti Susan K. Swords William Thomas Legislative information and communication professionals place a high value on excellence and professionalism in the performance of their various duties. Accordingly, the Legislative Information and Communication Staff Section (LINCS) of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has developed and adopted ethical guidelines for those employed in this profession by state legislatures. The guidelines are intended to assist professionals in the daily performance of their duties, provide managers with guidelines to apply to the activities of their respective organizations, and sensitize newer members of the profession to ethical issues they may encounter. Efforts have been made to recognize differences between individual operations, such as partisan, nonpartisan, or bipartisan orientation and single or multi-chamber responsibilities. These guidelines may be used as a model for individual information and communication operations that wish to adopt their own guidelines and may be modified as necessary to meet specific individualized needs. Legislative and information communication professionals are public servants with a responsibility to ensure that all professional decisions are made on their merits, unimpeded by conflicting personal interests, with a goal of securing and maintaining public trust. These guidelines are subject to periodic review by LINCS and may be amended by its members or its Executive Committee on their behalf. Responsibilities to the Legislative Institution A legislative information and communications professional is a public servant and an integral part of the legislative institution. The mission of the state legislature is to represent the people in deliberating and deciding about matters affecting the common good. The role of the professional is to help the institution and its member units - partisan, nonpartisan, and bipartisan - to communicate the manner in which the institution is meeting its mission. Professionals should be loyal to the principles of representative democracy, as well as the legislative institution and its member units - partisan, nonpartisan, and bipartisan - as instruments of representative democracy. Professionals should always be vigilant in avoiding any conflicts of interest that may interfere with the work of the institution or be contrary to the mission of the institution, as well as avoid any action or inaction that could bring dishonor upon the institution and its member units - partisan, nonpartisan, and bipartisan. Resources at the disposal of professionals should always be used for the public good, not private gain. Professionals should be competent, striving to acquire and maintain the knowledge and skills necessary to do the work they are expected to do. Professionals need to be aware of their areas of expertise, to be forthright about their capabilities with legislators, and to pursue, when practical, educational and learning opportunities that will enhance their knowledge and skills. Responsibilities to Legislators Legislative information and communication professionals enjoy a relationship of trust, confidence, and responsibility to legislators and have the duty to act in a way that inspire the trust and confidence legislators place in staff members. Professionals are expected to give the legislature the full benefit of their knowledge and skills without usurping the authority to make legislative decisions, which has been exclusively delegated to legislators. The responsibilities and obligations of legislative and communication staff professionals depend upon the role of each individual professional. While some professionals serve their institutions in a nonpartisan or bipartisan capacity, some work for partisan organizations within the institution, or perhaps for a specific legislator. Professionals should remain loyal to the legislator or legislators to whom they are responsible within the framework of other ethical and legal considerations. Professionals should be appropriately discreet in what they reveal about work done for legislators or the institution and, subject to the law and in accordance with custom or policy of a legislative body or agency, maintain confidentiality as appropriate. The appropriate level of discretion is dependent upon the nature of the relationship between the professional and the legislator or institution. When professionals are requested to provide advice to legislators, the advice should be reliable, objective, and candid. A professional's personal beliefs should not interfere with his or her ability to present advice independent of his or her own interests or other third parties. Professionals should avoid activities that conflict with objectivity or give the appearance of a conflict of interest. Legislative information and communication professionals have a responsibility to one another and the profession itself. Professionals should be supportive of one another, assist each other to the extent to which they can given their individual roles and responsibilities, provide nurturing and assistance to new members of the profession, support the ideals of the profession and support the role and value of the professional in the legislative environment. Professionals may work on opposite sides of an issue or for legislators who oppose each other, but this does not require that they seek to harm a colleague's reputation, question his or her motives, or affect the terms of his or her employment. Indeed, because professionals depend on each other for assistance and support, the obligations to be honest, discreet, candid, objective, competent, diligent, and fair apply in their relations to each other as well as in their relations to legislators. Professionals should treat each other with respect and appreciate the pressures they work under and the difficulty of some of the choices they must make. Further, professionals should respect each other's differences and work together as needed regardless of gender, race, ethnic origin, religion, or physical ability. Responsibilities to the Public Legislative information and communication professionals are public servants and have obligations and responsibilities to the general public. Professionals are expected to perform their responsibilities with the highest level of integrity and honesty. Professionals should be mindful that the public views them as representatives of the legislature as an institution. In keeping with their responsibility to build and uphold the public's trust, professionals should provide accurate, useful, and timely information to both legislators and the public. Because of the position of responsibility professionals hold, they are expected to uphold the law and all applicable regulations. Professionals should understand that unlawful or unethical conduct casts aspersions upon the entire legislative institution and refrain from such conduct. Professionals who are directly aware of unlawful or unethical behavior within the legislative institution should pursue appropriate channels to remedy the situation in a responsible and respectful manner.
For more information, contact: Gene Rose |
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