making local government more ethical

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Robert Wechsler

I've been on a sort of work-leave the last two weeks. My town, North Haven, Connecticut (pop. 24,000), has been a mess for a long time, but few people have cared enough to pay attention, and those who criticize the administration are personally attacked and delegitimized. It was my town's mess, and my inability to do anything locally, that led me to do work for Common Cause Connecticut, and then devote myself full-time to municipal ethics by coming to work for City Ethics.

Sadly, it...

donmc

This article is sourced from: http://www.laethics1.com/Package/ReformPackage.asp

A growing, statewide coalition of organizations has contributed to the development of this initiative and is supporting the following reform package in the 2007 session of the Legislature:

donmc

From: Ghana News Online

Professor Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu of the University of Ghana says corruption can only be eliminated if people face up to it and strip it of "the dignity conferred on it with fond names" for the society to see it for what it is.

She expressed regret that people approve of petty official corruption and have even coined fond names for such acts.

Prof. Mensah-Bonsu was...

Robert Wechsler

Memphis has been the scene of some serious corruption in the last few years. And for years before that, as well, although they say that in the old days the corruption was institutionalized, so that there were rules about how you could and could not take advantage of your office.

In round numbers, in the last six years, 66 officials, employees, and contractors have been found guilty of various sorts of government-related crimes. In a city of only 650,000 people, that puts Memphis in...

Robert Wechsler

Many areas of ethics have little overlap with municipal ethics. But one rather specialized area that I came across has some interesting applications: the ethics of casting love spells.

According to an article in about.com, 'the standard position among Pagans is that you should never do spells to make a particular person love you.' With municipal politicians, this should apply also to spells to make everyone love you...

Robert Wechsler

According to an article in today's Louisville Courier-Journal, there is a dispute in Jeffersonville, Kentucky that is worth taking a look at.

The mayor has accused the city board of ethics' attorney of having a conflict of interest and is urging that he be fired. The conflict involves support for the another mayoral candidate (in the primary).

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