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Conflicts of Interest December 7, 2015

Public Relations

Local governments that lack a lobbying oversight program do not have to merely throw up their hands when a huge procurement matter arises. They have the choice to set rules for that matter which, if it works, may later be applied more generally. This is the lesson that comes from the York, Ontario …
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play October 28, 2015

Austin Lobbying Reform and Opposition to It

Considering that it reflects a typical approach to lobbying, it is valuable to look at the language of a resolution to improve Austin's lobbying oversight program (attached; see below). It is also valuable to consider the opposition to this resolution by a coalition of local architects, engineers, …
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Conflicts of Interest October 23, 2015

Local Agency Lobbyists Should Register as Lobbyists

Rarely do agencies' own lobbyists get caught by their agency breaking agency rules on communications. This is what just happened in Houston. According to an article last night on Houston's Channel 13 website, an individual who, under a contract, lobbies state and federal officials for the Metropoli…
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Transparency & Disclosure October 20, 2014

Problems Relating to Secret Local Govt Pension Fund Agreements with Private Equity Firms

Gretchen Morgenson's investigative piece in yesterday's New York Times is extremely disturbing. According to her research, local and state government pension funds have taken huge risks, and then allowed them to be hidden from the public, by signing agreements with private equity firms that make th…
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October 3, 2014

CA Gov. Brown Points to 50-Year-Old Essay To Defend His Veto of Ethics Reforms

This week, California governor Jerry Brown had to go back fifty years to find someone who agreed with his view of government ethics reform. According to an article in the San Diego Mercury-News, in vetoing ethics reforms that "sought to limit the types of gifts politicians can accept and force lawm…
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Ethics Codes & Reform June 23, 2014

Ethics Commissions Need to Look at the Reasons Behind Gift Rules

The Washington state Legislative Ethics Board has been discussing how many meals a state legislator should be able to accept from lobbyists and lobbyist-employers under the "infrequent" meals exception in the state ethics code. The exception allows legislators to accept food and beverage when their…
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April 21, 2014

Backsliding re Mayoral Balls

I am a big believer in officials taking voluntary action to improve an ethics environment when passing laws is not possible. For example, if the state and the council both choose not to prohibit campaign contributions from restricted sources, that is no reason why a mayoral candidate should not mak…
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Transparency & Disclosure April 8, 2014

Contracting Out Government Work to Prevent Transparency

Here's a good way to get around local government transparency laws. If you want an appointee's activities to remain secret, let him be hired by a private entity, give money to the private entity sufficient to pay his salary, and don't communicate with him via government-owned computers or smartphon…
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Conflicts of Interest January 18, 2014

Lobbyists for Local Governments

Over the last few decades, governments have privatized many of their functions. One function that governments have begun privatizing in recent years is lobbying higher-level governments. Since every government is at a higher level than a local government (think not just regional, state, and federal…
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Conflicts of Interest September 16, 2013

Post-Employment Government Contracts

The first blog post on the West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) matter looked at it from the point of view of the timing of withdrawal from participation. This post will look at it from the point of view of post-employment issues. A third post will look at this matter in the context…
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