What can a citizen do when a local government official falsely impugns her reputation and retaliates against her due to her opposition to a matter the official supports? The City Ethics Model Code has a provision that deals with an official falsely impugning a citizen's reputation, but very few ethics codes contain such a provision. And even our model code has nothing that deals with retaliation.

In some situations, the citizen may have a cause of action against the official and the local government under 42 U.S.C. §1983, for a deprivation of her constitutional rights, such as her right to speak out on an issue, by a person or entity acting under color of state law.

I've been writing a lot about the controversies surrounding a new Broward County (FL) ethics code, but there's also been controversy in the Broward County School District that is likely to lead to an ethics code of its own (according to a Miami Herald editorial on Saturday, a former school board member pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges this year, and another member revealed that her husband works for a firm that frequently lobbies the school board).

I don't normally deal with purely campaign finance issues, but this gambit is too good (or too bad) to pass by. The perpetrator of the gambit is our old friend Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ.

Whistleblower provisions are extremely important to government ethics, but poorly worded ethics provisions can undermine even the best whistleblower provisions, especially in unscrupulous hands. One such ethics provision is the confidential information provision.

What responsibility does a candidate have to check on those who make contributions to his or her campaign? Is there a greater responsibility when the candidate is running for a law enforcement position, from sheriff to D.A. to judge?

These questions were raised with respect to a situation in Dallas County, where the sheriff accepted large contributions from two convicted felons, according to an article in Sunday's Dallas Morning News.

What do you do when an ethics commission is moribund? Sadly, few people know and few people care. That is the norm. Rarely does an official complain publicly, "I have no one to give me good ethics advice." She just goes to the city or county attorney, or makes the decision herself. Rarely does anyone complain that there is no ethics training or nowhere to file an ethics complaint. And certainly no official complains that he doesn't have to file a financial disclosure form anymore.

This year, the comptroller in Erie County, NY (the county seat is Buffalo, pop. 1 million) thought of a way to make the moribund county ethics commission an issue:  investigate it and report on what he found. The report came out on Thursday.