When it comes to ethics and confidence in public institutions, appearances of propriety are just as important as whether public officials are in fact acting honestly and ethically.

Thus, the messages that public officials send should inspire confidence in governmental institutions.

It is a lesson that North Carolina has been slow to learn.

The latest example comes in a Daily Tar Heel story revealing that UNC System President Erskine Bowles “leads the board of directors of the company that was chosen to develop University Square through a closed process.”

The University Square property in downtown Chapel Hill was recently purchased by the UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation, a private group that manages assets and property for UNC. To develop the property, that group hired a for-profit group, Cousins Properties, whose board is headed by Bowles. Negotiations and contracts in the deal are private and not subject to public scrutiny or review.

And when asked about the appearance of propriey, the answer was, “trust us.”

“He has recused himself from any involvement in any doings related to the University,” said Joni Worthington, vice president for communications for the UNC system. “He will have no impact and no involvement,” the DTH reported.

Bowles has served North Carolina honorably and without scandal. And while the University Square arrangement appears to be cozy, as pointed out by the DTH, no one is suggesting that anyone involved is doing something wrong.

But “trust us” is not a political message that inspires much-needed confidence in North Carolina’s public institutions, especially given the track record of state government officials over the last several years.

In governmental ethics appearance is everything. Posted by Leroy Towns

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 9:35 am and is filed under Ethics, Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.