The city of Vallejo, California (pop. 117,000) is about to file for
bankruptcy, primarily, it appears, to allow it to void union contracts
and have a bankruptcy judge rather than negotiations work out a new
contract. Sajan George, an adviser to struggling public entities, has
said, "There's a wave of this coming across the U.S. What happens
in Vallejo could definitely set a...
A quote from a lawyer in an article
in today's New York Times
brought me back to what I recently promised to discuss at the end of a blog entry about
Elizabeth Wolgast's book, Ethics of an Artificial Person: Lost
Responsibility in Professions and Organizations.
Daniel K. Webb, the head of Detroit Mayor Kwame...
How a big-city police chief responds to his commission of an ethics violation is more
important than the violation itself. The worst thing he can do is act as if he is above the law, as if ethics laws, not to mention ethics
considerations, do not apply to him.
Sadly, Miami's police chief, John Timoney, has done the wrong thing almost
every time he had the opportunity.
According to a
recent article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
Fort Worth's mayor, Mike Moncrief, made $633,000 last year from the oil
and gas business. He also has an interest in several real estate
developments. A committee, appointed by the mayor and council, will
soon be making recommendations on rules for natural gas drilling and on
fees that affect real estate development.
Form of government issues are not generally considered to be part of
government ethics. But they are intertwined in important ways.
This can be seen from the New York City Council slush fund
scandal. According to an
article in today's New York Times, it began when the Board of
Estimate, a finance board in charge of writing the budget, was
abolished in the charter revision of 1989. This gave...
Ethics complaints are often brought for purely political reasons, and
election time is the favorite time for bringing them.
According to an article in yesterday's Flint Journal, a Thetford Township
Supervisor brought an ethics complaint before his own board against a
township Trustee who is planning to run for his seat this year. The
complaint raises a reasonable problem...