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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play February 12, 2015

Fundraising for a Political Convention: Pay to Play, Transparency, and a Blind Spot

Even the most enthusiastic good government politicians often have a serious blind spot:  themselves. They believe that everyone else is into pay to play and selling out to big contributors. But not them. They're only doing what's best for their city.  They have only the community's best interests i…
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December 17, 2014

Lobbying Oversight Programs Are Hot in Canada

When it comes to local lobbying oversight, cities are falling like flies. At least in Canada. According to an article yesterday on the Vancouver, BC Metro News website, the city council voted unanimously to look into establishing a lobbying registry and hiring an independent ombuds, apparently to r…
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December 15, 2014

A Uniformed Union Fiefdom in NYC

I've written several posts about individuals who have created fiefdoms (a D.A., a housing authority director, a city pension board attorney, the director of a council of local governments, and the CEO of a state university foundation), but none of them were union leaders. A large investigative piec…
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Conflicts of Interest December 9, 2014

Local Officials Officiating at Restricted Sources' Weddings

According to an article yesterday on the Baltimore Brew website, a year ago Baltimore's mayor officiated at a wedding between two individuals who lobby the city government. In Las Vegas, no less. Mayors, judges and, sometimes, other local government officials often officiate at weddings. Some ethic…
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November 5, 2014

Ethics Reform in Tallahassee, Rejection of Election Overspending by Big Contra Costa Employer

Two big local ethics/election stories come from Contra Costa, CA and Tallahassee, FL. Ethics Reform Package Features a Different Sort of Public Campaign Financing Program According to an article this morning on the Tallahassee Democrat website, by a 2-1 margin Tallahassee voters approved a charter …
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Local Government Practice October 28, 2014

Poor Contractor Contingency Fee Incentives

The last time I discussed contingency fee arrangements in local government contracting was 2007 (the focus then was on attorneys). A front-page story in today's New York Times shows clearly that I have not been giving this topic the attention it deserves. Allegations have been made by the U.S. Atto…
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play October 14, 2014

How a Huge Corporation's Political Spending Can Change a City's Ethics Environment

In the last few years, one of the biggest topics in the general area of government ethics, including campaign finance, lobbying, and transparency, has been the effect of huge campaign contributions by corporations and billionaires, which has become increasingly doable pursuant to a series of U.S. S…
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October 9, 2014

Corruption Surrounding the Building of Barriers in Venice, Italy

The former chair of the Venice in Peril Fund wrote a disturbing piece for the September 25 issue of the New York Review of Books about corruption in Venice. This corruption derived largely from a major project:  the building of flood protection barriers, known as MOSE. Although this project was lar…
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September 4, 2014

Chicago: Legislative IG and Mayoral Travel

Chicago's Legislative IG The battle continues in Chicago over government ethics authority and funding. According to the cover letter to the legislative inspector general's semi-annual report dated August 22, 2014 (attached; see below), the IG's office has expended its 2014 budget and the city counc…
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Conflicts of Interest August 18, 2014

How Preferential Treatment Toward Municipal Employees and Contractors Can Affect Elections

Ferguson, MO — where Michael Brown was recently killed by a police officer, and the police department's first reaction was to protect the officer and keep the facts secret — is an unusual case of a local government where a scandal is likely to actually increase rather than decrease citizen particip…
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