City Related

Ethics program independence is, as far as I'm concerned, the single most important issue in ethics reform. Nothing gains the public's trust as much as an ethics program that is independent from the officials over whom it has jurisdiction.

It is clear from the second report of the Chicago Ethics Reform Task Force (attached; see below) that the task force members cared about making the Chicago's ethics program more independent. But the task force stopped short of community...

My second blog post on the Chicago ethics task force's second report identified what I considered to be its worst ideas. Mayor Emanuel's recommendations accepted its bad ideas just as much as its good ideas.

The second round of Chicago ethics reform recommendations, based on the ethics task force's second report (attached; see below), have been proposed by Chicago's mayor Rahm Emanuel (click here to read a summary...

After Common Cause questioned the fitness of Baltimore's government ethics director for his job, an opinion piece called for him to be fired, and...

A situation that arose recently in Atlanta shows how important it is to require applicant disclosure of relationships with local government officials, and to hold applicants accountable. According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta's ethics office dismissed allegations that a council member had sponsored and voted on a no-bid contract when...

A conflict situation in Albuquerque presents an excellent opportunity to consider just what it is about conflicts that makes them problematic. According to an article in the Albuquerque Journal on Saturday, the chair of Albuquerque's Police Oversight Commission also directs the auxiliary of the local branch of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), and her husband is...