City Related | City Ethics

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play February 13, 2014

Local Public Campaign Financing and Independent Spending

In a recent blog post, the background issue was the effect of independent spending on a local public campaign financing program in Santa Fe. Especially in the shadow of recent Supreme Court decisions, this is currently a serious problem for many local public campaign financing programs, and is a po…

Conflicts of Interest February 13, 2014

Bribery vs. Acceptance of Gifts

According to an article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, yesterday former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin was convicted on 20 of the 21 corruption charges against him, primarily for bribery, honest services fraud, and tax fraud. This hard-fought battle was actually about one thing only, whether gifts…

Enforcement & Complaints February 12, 2014

Former EC Members Can Help By Filing Complaints

Since most local ethics commissions do not have the authority to initiate their own investigations or draft their own complaints (although in many cases this authority is not expressly withheld), there is a special role that former EC members, especially chairs, can play: filing complaints that no…

Ethics Codes & Reform February 10, 2014

Allegations Based on Unenforceably Vague Standards

Mike DeBonis's article in the Washington Post last week describes an operatic ethics matter, with several twists and complications, with dramatic cries of innocence mixed with scathing accusations of guilt. The article is certainly more exciting than this blog post, which focuses on issues raised b…

Ethics Codes & Reform January 29, 2014

FL League of Cities' Ethics Proposals IV - Local Govt. Assocs. Should Not Lobby re Conflicts of Interest

This is the last of four blog posts on Florida Senate Bill 606 (attached; see below), one of the worst ethics reform bills I have ever read. The Florida League of Cities was deeply involved in drafting these supposed ethics reforms, which I criticize in my last three blog posts. The question needs …

Enforcement & Complaints January 27, 2014

Florida League of Cities' Ethics Reform Proposals I - Preventing the Filing of Complaints

Florida Senate Bill 606 (attached; see below) is one of the worst ethics reform bills I have ever read. But it is far worse than the words it consists of. What makes it worse is that, with respect to laws that affect local officials, it is largely the work of the Florida League of Cities (this was …

Enforcement & Complaints January 21, 2014

Multiple Signatures on an Ethics Complaint

Who should be allowed to file an ethics complaint? Certainly any citizen of the jurisdiction. But what about multiple citizens of the jurisdiction? Should an ethics commission exclude a complaint from them? This is what happened recently in Brookfield, CT, according to an article in the News-Times.…

Ethics Commissions & Administration January 20, 2014

Ethics Commission As Mediator

Here's a new role for an ethics commission: mediator in a dispute between other government oversight offices. According to an article in the Advocate last week, New Orleans' ethics board has appointed two of its members to mediate in an ongoing dispute between the city's Inspector General and its …

Conflicts of Interest January 8, 2014

Two Complex Conflict Situations in Montpelier, VT

According to a recent Reader Supported News article, ethics allegations have been made in Montpelier regarding two high-level officials. Both allegations are worthy of a closer look. According to the article, the mayor of Montpelier, the state capital, is a lawyer with a firm that represents two ma…

Local Government Practice January 3, 2014

Problems with the Perfectly Ordinary

According to an article yesterday in the Seguin (TX) Gazette, there will be a perfectly ordinary local government ethics occurrence next Monday in Seguin, a town of 25,000 outside San Antonio: the city's ethics commission will meet in closed session to discuss a recently filed ethics complaint. The…

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