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Conflicts of Interest October 13, 2010

Over-reaction to an Alleged Conflict

Over-reaction to an alleged ethics violation can be as bad as under-reaction. In Bergen County, NJ, after one of seven freeholders (the county council), at his first meeting, voted to continue to keep county funds in a bank owned by the parent of the company he works for, an ethics complaint was fi…
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October 8, 2010

Should a District Attorney Be Counsel to a Council?

The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday ran a fascinating article about Dallas County's district attorney. It caught my interest because he was accused of a conflict of interest, but accusing this district attorney of a conflict of interest is like accusing King Kong of being big. The Dallas County DA…
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September 23, 2010

Local Legislators Investigate an Ethics Commission in Suffolk County

When I wrote about the disclosure controversy in Suffolk County back in July, I didn't realize that another interesting ethics issue was going on there. In late June, the county legislature had instituted an investigation of the county ethics commission. One reason for this investigation appears to…
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Transparency & Disclosure September 21, 2010

Confidential Information Provisions, Ethics, and Transparency

In Milwaukee County, according to an article in Sunday's Journal-Sentinel, a county supervisor is seeking to add to the county ethics code a confidential information provision that would not limit the prohibition to what is common in ethics codes: information divulged for someone's benefit. As I've…
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September 11, 2010

Problems with Santa Fe County's Aspirational, Yet Enforceable Draft Code of Conduct

What is most remarkable about the proposed code of conduct for Santa Fe County (NM) is the fact that it was drafted by the county attorney. It reads as if it were put together by a citizens group in a community that has lost faith in its government officials. The proposed code starts with a declara…
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Enforcement & Complaints August 20, 2010

A Possible Cause of Action When an Official Retaliates Against a Citizen

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 eth…
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Ethics Codes & Reform August 17, 2010

Toward Better Ethics Rules, Training, Oversight, and Enforcement in a Florida School District

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 me…
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August 12, 2010

A Sheriff Joe Campaign Finance Gambit

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. You see, he's not running for sheriff again until 2012, but he doesn't like one of the guys who'…
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Ethics Codes & Reform August 11, 2010

It's Important to Make Sure That a Confidential Information Provision Cannot Be Used Against Whistleblowers

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. A nurse at a Winker County, TX hosp…
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play August 10, 2010

Dealing Responsibly with Contributions from Individuals Convicted of Crimes

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…
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