Online Ethics Training and Information Materials

Online Training List Updated May 24, 2013

More and more government ethics information and training materials are available online, so that they can be easily accessed at any time. Everything from FAQs to information sheets to plain-English guides to quizzes to videos.

These materials are not only useful to the local government employees and officials they are intended for. They are also useful to those in other local governments who have to draft such materials and create training programs. These materials show both good and bad ways to approach educating employees, officials, candidates, contractors, lobbyists, and the public.

There's no reason to recreate the wheel each time a local government ethics commission, with a small or non-existent budget, needs to put together training materials. Toward that end, I have put together a listing, with links, of what you can find on a number of local government ethics sites, as well as on the sites of state ethics commissions with jurisdiction over local officials. I am not recommending any particular materials, just listing what is available.

Please let me know of any useful materials you know of that are not on this list. I would like to expand and annotate the list, so that it becomes an increasingly useful resource for local governments getting started with or improving their ethics programs.

The list is attached below, in PDF format. There are additions since 2009, including new cities and counties but, sadly, no new trends or very substantial changes.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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