Just friends? Chris Christie and Jerry Jones
A long time ago – before Enron, World Com and Sarbanes-Oxley – business ethics issues in general and conflicts of interest compliance requirements in particular had little prominence in the work lives of the average employee. But now – through codes of conduct, policies, training, certifications, hotline calls, investigations and discipline – that has changed.
Of course, not all ethics issues are of equal interest to all employees. But COIs tend to be high on the list, because of their inherently personal nature. In the post-Enron era, employees who used to be allowed to receive hospitality from suppliers often now are barred from doing so. And to a large degree they accept that as being good for their companies and therefore ultimately good for themselves – so long as the rules apply to everyone equally. Indeed, when one of their colleagues breaks those rules the hotline can ring off the hook – often motivated not by jealousy but a sense of fairness that is truly innate to the human species. (For more on the evolutionary foundation of fairness as a moral value see this chapter from Jon Haidt’s The Righteous Mind.)
Over the past week, the story of NJ governor and presidential aspirant Chris Christie and family being flown to a Cowboys game in Dallas by the team’s owner Jerry Jones and being entertained in Jones’ sky box has been oft told in the press and echoed by football fans throughout the country too. The COI issue is that a company in which Jones was a significant investor received a lucrative contract with the Port Authority, an entity over which, as governor of New Jersey, Christie has powerful influence (and also an entity which has been plagued by patronage). Here is an article from In These Times with more details about the story.
Christie’s defense is that he and Jones were personal friends. While it is true that the relevant NJ ethics code does permit gifts from personal friends, this cannot mean what the governor claims as that would essentially permit any government employee to receive a gift from any vendor by declaring his or her friendship with that vendor. Not only would such a loophole gut the ethics law, it would encourage vendors and government employees to become real friends – thereby making the COI worse and further discouraging ethical vendors from competing for the government’s business. (For the details of the purported Christie-Jones friendship see this story – in which the governor says the friendship started only a few months after Jones’ company got the Port Authority contract, which underscores that this is not the kind of relationship for which the gift exception was designed.)
As a former federal prosecutor who brought many corruption cases, the governor almost certainly knows that this interpretation of the ethics law is untenable.* But as a politician with his eyes on the White House he seems to have made the choice that his “jury” – potential voters – won’t care.
Years ago, another brash politician – the first Mayor Daley of Chicago – was caught in a conflict of interest involving a family member getting government business, and responded: “If I can’t help my sons, then [my critics] can kiss my ass. I make no apologies to anyone.” Given the broad tolerance for COIs at the time, it is not surprising that this didn’t seem to hurt him (at least from what I recall about the incident).
But in the post-Enron era that way of thinking may no longer make sense. As noted above, many American workers are reminded constantly about the importance of an ethical approach to COIs – and know that if they tried to do something like what was done here they would probably be fired. And the obvious unfairness of a double standard like this could end up hurting Governor Christie in ways that the late Mayor Daley could not have imagined – but which the governor should have foreseen.
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* The Justice Department’s example of when the personal relationship exemption to gift rules applies: Jenny is employed as a researcher by the Veteran’s Administration. Her cousin and close friend, Zach, works for a pharmaceutical company that does business with the VA. Jenny’s 40th birthday is approaching and Zach and his wife have invited Jenny and her husband out to dinner to celebrate the occasion. May Jenny accept? Yes.Gifts are permitted where the circumstances make it clear that the gift is motivated by a family relationship or personal friendship rather than the position of the employee.
Some other reading of possible interest:
An earlier post on attendance at sporting events and COIs.
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