MEDIA ADVISORY
Feb. 18, 2005

CONTACT:
J. Scott Raecker, (515) 271-1911 or (515) 360-2095
Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu

EXPERT ON ETHICS TO ADDRESS JOINT SESSION OF THE IOWA LEGISLATURE

Michael Josephson, founder and president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics and founder of the national CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition, will address a joint session of the Iowa House and Senate at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the House Chambers at the Iowa Capitol. Josephson, who has been invited to speak to lawmakers and statewide elected officials by Gov. Tom Vilsack, Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson and legislative leaders, will be available to answer questions from journalists from 10:15 to 10:45 a.m. in the House Speaker's Conference Room.

In his presentation, Josephson will talk about civility in the public arena -- how to move past contentious elections to govern effectively; how to work together with sometimes opposing viewpoints on policy and budget issues; how to put aside past political disputes and resulting perceptions to work together; how to overcome politics above policy; and how to set expectations of attitude and behavior related to civility, decency and respect.

The nonprofit Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics helps people make principled decisions and live with greater integrity. Based in Los Angeles and active nationally, the institute works with corporations, government agencies, nonprofit organizations and schools, providing such services as confidential consultations, ethics audits, keynote addresses, seminars and customized trainings.

"People can be on opposing sides of issues and opinions, however it's still incumbent upon them to conduct themselves with civility, decency and respect," said J. Scott Raecker, a member of the House of Representatives and executive director of the Institute for Character Development at Drake University. "Our responsibility to uphold the public trust requires us as leaders to model the Six Pillars of Character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship."

The Institute for Character Development at Drake University, a statewide partner of the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition, has spearheaded an effort to promote CHARACTER COUNTS! initiatives across Iowa, from pre-school to the work place to the playing fields. The results are eye-opening to even the most hardened cynics.

The most significant changes are in the school system, where the initiative has been in place the longest. Today, CHARACTER COUNTS! initiatives are in practice in more than 600 schools, representing 221 of 360 school districts.

One school, Cornell Elementary School in Saydel, Iowa, has seen its disciplinary write-ups or trips to the Principal Deb Child’s office, decline from 400 per year five years ago to fewer than five last year.
Another school success story is at Clegg Park Elementary School in West Des Moines, where disciplinary write-ups on the school buses averaged 38 per quarter for the K-5 school before a CHARACTER COUNTS! initiative was introduced seven years ago. Today at Hillside Elementary (formerly Clegg Park) there have been virtually no disciplinary incidents on the busses, Raecker says.

In Eagle Grove Iowa, a town of about 1,500 in central Iowa, and one of 24 communities that have adopted CHARACTER COUNTS!, juvenile crime has decreased by 70 percent over the past three years, with less vandalism and shoplifting than in years past.

"The police chief attributes this to the community focus on CHARACTER COUNTS!," Raecker says.
Although there are CHARACTER COUNTS! initiatives in other states, with a population of 2.9 million, Iowa is by far the most active per capita.

Another example is in Urbandale, where the local CHARACTER COUNTS! Committee, frustrated with negative political campaigns for everything from school board to U.S. Congress, has asked candidates to sign pledges that they would run clean campaigns.

The effort is now moving into the workplace, with several Iowa companies, Pella Windows, Regency Homes, and Touchstone Energy, conducting sessions for managers to go through case studies from the companies' own files that dealt with ethical dilemmas.

"We're helping to develop a culture of ethical decision making—the ability to discern right from wrong and figuring out how to do the right thing, no matter what the cost," Raecker says.

Another initiative is called the Youth Training Core for Character, in which 38 high school students, some of them with disciplinary problems in their past, undergo extensive training before conducting peer to peer CHARACTER COUNTS! training sessions to middle and high school students across Iowa.
Although Raecker is a Republican lawmaker, he insists that the CHARACTER COUNTS! initiative in Iowa is non-partisan.

"Character, civility, decency and respect knows no political boundaries," he says. "In fact, if you ask people around the state where this is needed the most, they would say in the political arena."

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