Annapolis is an unusual little city in many ways. It may only have 40,000
residents, but it's the state capital, the county seat, the home of
the U.S. Naval Academy, and equidistant, and not far, from Baltimore
and Washington, D.C. With respect to government ethics, the county
for which it is the county seat, Anne Arundel County, has
a relatively good
ethics program, complete with an executive director, which is
very unusual even for a county of half a million people.
Therefore, it's not surprising that Annapolis's ethics commission
and mayor are trying to improve the unusual little city's government
ethics program. The most important improvements in
the
proposed ordinance are (1) giving the EC more teeth (although
they're very blunt teeth) and the right to initiate investigations,
(2) giving the ethics program more transparency, (3) requiring more
financial disclosure, and (4) placing stricter limits on gifts.