making local government more ethical

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Recusal/Withdrawal

Robert Wechsler
In her comment to my blog post on a Michigan recusal matter, Catherine Mullhaupt of the Michigan Townships Association not only pointed out the effect of a women's property rights act on local government conflict of interest law (see my blog post on this), but also pointed out...
Robert Wechsler
Yesterday, the Seattle City Council passed amendments to the city's ethics code, based on recommendations from the city's ethics commission, according to an article in the West Seattle ...
Robert Wechsler
One of the biggest problems with local government lobbyists is that they invariably have close contacts with those who run the city or county. So whenever they are involved in a matter, especially the bidding of large contracts, there is a strong appearance of impropriety, and people don't trust the bidding process.

This is why some local governments place a ban on the lobbying of government officials with respect to large contracts and developments. Phoenix is one local government...
Robert Wechsler
Here are three different recusal case studies:

Public Recusal Is Not Enough
One of the most important things to emphasize about recusal is that recusal at a meeting is not enough. Recusal is supposed to mean withdrawal from involvement in any aspect of a matter where an official has a conflict of interest. Recusal at a meeting is only withdrawal from the public part of a matter. If the official continues to be involved with the matter behind the scenes, it is, in...
Robert Wechsler
Ottawa is currently in the grips of its mayor's influence-peddling trial. The allegations are that the mayor tried to get another mayoral candidate out of the race by offering him money and a federal position. The Ottawa Citizen has an excellent chronology of what allegedly occurred. There is a lot of evidence, but most of it appears to be hearsay, at least so far. But...
Robert Wechsler
There are many perils of an inadequate local government ethics code, as can be seen in Colorado Springs, which passed an ethics code in 2007. Last week, I wrote a blog entry about the new ethics commission's first complaint. Even before the ethics commission has met on the complaint, problems have arisen, according to...

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