I've
talked about legal defense funds in the past as a way to accept
large gifts from those doing business with a local government, but I
referred, tangentially, to only one local government legal
defense fund, that of
former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. So I did some research and
came up with a few other examples, which are worth knowing about if the...
Update: October 21, 2009 (see below)
Two interesting issues come out of a long, detailed Kansas City
Star
article yesterday about Missouri political consultant, and recent
house speaker,
Ron Jetton.
A recent New York Times
article concerns a potential conflict in the city council speaker's
office. But what is most interesting about the article is the bigger
question it raises
about differentiating between businesses and unions in pay-to-play laws.
Once again, a local government official's attempt to use a charity to
get around campaign finance laws has blown up in his face. According to
an
article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, an Atlanta council
member was fined $25,000 by a state court for failing to register a
foundation (named after himself) and failing to maintain financial
records for it.
Yesterday, according to an
article in the Dallas Observer, Don Hill, a former Dallas council
member, and four of his associates were found guilty of participating
in an incredible extortion plot relating to affordable housing in South
Dallas. The story, as produced by the prosecution with the help of a
major participant who pled guilty and a developer who was an FBI...
Some news in Greensboro, NC led me to a blog post on old news in
Greenburgh, NY, so here's the new news and the old news about two
cities with nearly the same name.
In Greensboro, NC, a council candidate has thrown down a challenge to
fill out and post online the state financial disclosure form. It's not
quite appropriate, since all its references are to the state, but it
does require a good deal of...