Safra Working Papers | City Ethics

Ethics Commissions & Administration March 31, 2011

Independence of Ethics Administration Should Trump Independence of Agencies and Districts

Two types of independence often clash when it comes to government ethics. It is important that government ethics programs be administered by independent commissions. But independent agencies often do what they can not to be subject to a local government ethics commission.

Ethics Commissions & Administration September 26, 2013

Independent Agencies Without Ethics Oversight Can Mean Disaster

"It was like dandelions. You just accept them. They were there, something you've seen all your life."

Ethics Commissions & Administration January 3, 2013

Independent Non-Sitting Ethics Panels in Georgia

I'm a big supporter of making ethics commissions independent of those over whom they have jurisdiction. Milton, Georgia and, now, Forsyth County, Georgia have come up with an interesting approach to ethics commission independence that has one good point and several bad points.

Ethics Commissions & Administration December 28, 2009

Independent Offices vs. Independent Ethics Enforcement in Palm Beach County

Update: December 30, 2009

March 12, 2013

Independent Redistricting (and Ethics) Works

In ethics, there are two basic approaches: (1) an ends-based approach, also referred to as utilitarian or consequentialist; and (2) a means-based approach, also referred to as rules-based or deontological. Government officials, and most people when speaking about government, generally use the former, while government ethics uses the latter. This causes a lot of problems.

Conflicts of Interest October 21, 2010

Indirect Benefits and Parents of Government Contractors

Indirect benefits are one of the most problematic issues in government ethics. Usually, indirect benefits relate to an official's relationships, that is, where the official receives not a direct financial benefit, but satisfaction or an indirect benefit from a financial benefit going instead to a relative, employer, customer, or substantial political supporter.

Conflicts of Interest June 6, 2012

Indirect Benefits, Expertise, and the Responsibility for Poor Ethics Advice

Update: June 20, 2012 (see below)

The saying goes that there are two sides to every story. But more commonly there is a story and ways to spin the story. The problem is telling them apart.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play May 16, 2014

Indirect Campaign Contributions Allow Fraudulent Speech

It's questionable whether a contractor, developer, grantee, or other individual or entity that seeks special benefits from a local government should be permitted to make sizeable campaign contributions to candidates for positions in the local government. But if they are not permitted to make such contributions directly, they should not be permitted to make them indirectly, either.

Conflicts of Interest October 31, 2010

Indirect Conflicts Involving Appointments

Election time makes public many ethics situations that make valuable case studies. One involves Florida gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott.

Conflicts of Interest March 10, 2010

Indirect Interests and Freedom of Speech

An unpublished Connecticut Superior Court opinion takes an odd approach to a conflict of interest charge against a member of a zoning commission in the small town of Pomfret (pop. 4,000). Not only is it odd, but it could very well be unconstitutional, as it partly bases its decision on whether individuals have spoken out for or against a matter before the zoning commission. My thanks go to Patricia Salkin, who wrote about the decision in her excellent Law of the Land blog and sent me a copy of the decision.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play August 10, 2012

Influence vs. Pay to Play

A big controversy surrounding the race for mayor of Honolulu is focused on the state's pay-to-play culture of the past, and what pay to play actually is. The reason for this is that a former Hawaii governor is running for mayor, and he is being supported by Bob Watada, a former state Campaign Spending Commission executive director who is known for bringing the state's pay-to-play culture to its knees during his 1994-2005 term in office.

September 4, 2012

Info re Bidding for a Large Dallas Ethics Training Contract

Today, I received a copy of the Dallas City Council agenda addendum for its August 22 meeting. This addendum contains (pp. 11-17) extensive information about a large ($434,495) contract for "the assessment of the City’s current ethics guidelines and the development of an ethics training program." City Ethics was a partner in the losing bid of the Josephson Institute of Ethics.

Enforcement & Complaints January 5, 2013

Innocence and the Difference Between Criminal and Ethics Enforcement

Is it enough for a local official to be "not guilty"? This is the question that has been raised with respect to a Tamarac, FL city commissioner who was found not guilty of bribery in December, according to a column by Michael Mayo this week in the Sun-Sentinel.

Ethics Codes & Reform July 12, 2010

Inquiry Judge Says That Ethical Obligations Go Beyond Ethics Law Provisions

There's an interesting issue at the heart of a judicial inquiry into possible misconduct by the mayor of Mississauga, Ontario. The council sought the inquiry to “investigate any supposed breach of trust or other misconduct of a Member of Council, an employee of the municipality or person having a contract with the municipality” and to inquire into “any matter connected with the good government of the municipality or the conduct of any part of its public business." In short, it is an open-ended inquiry into multiple matters relating to two deals in which the mayor was involved.

Ethics Codes & Reform February 6, 2012

Institutional Corruption Conference I: Duplicitous Exclusion

On Saturday, I attended a one-day conference on Institutional Corruption sponsored by the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University (videos of it will eventually appear here). Although local government was scarcely mentioned (there was one image of a painting that portrayed the 1930s machine in Kansas City, MO), many ideas that were discussed are applicable to local government ethics.

Ethics Codes & Reform February 8, 2012

Institutional Corruption Conference II: Definition and Diagnosis

Lawrence Lessig, who heads the Safra Center and hosted the event, started by defining institutional corruption as:

A situation where influences within an economy of influence tend to weaken the effectiveness of an institution, especially by weakening public trust of the institution.

This is an academic definition.

Ethics Codes & Reform February 10, 2012

Institutional Corruption Conference III: Cultures of Loyalty and Mutual Trust

At the Institutional Corruption Conference sponsored by Harvard's Safra Center last Saturday, Bruce Cain, a professor at UC Berkeley, pointed out that the permeable boundary between government and business (and, I would add, business law) brings into government many individuals who have a different concept of ethics. That is, in the business world, loyalty to one's supervisors (or clients) and to the company is the most important thing. In government, loyalty should be to the public. Of course, this is not loyalty as we know it, so loyalty should be suppressed as much as possible.

Ethics Codes & Reform February 11, 2012

Institutional Corruption Conference IV: A Weakness of Compliance Systems

At the Institutional Corruption conference sponsored by Harvard's Safra Ethics Center last Saturday, Ann Tenbrunsel, co-author of Blind Spots (see my blog posts on this book), noted that people act not only against what is written in ethics codes, but also against their own values. And they don't realize they're doing it. She portrayed the process by which we act as broken into three phases: prediction, action, and recollection. In the first and third phases, we tend to think in terms of values.

Resources & Learning April 29, 2015

Institutional Corruption: Course summary for ethics professionals

Ethical Reasoning: Institutional Corruption was a course held from January 28, 2014 through May 26, 2014 at Harvard College. It was taught by Lawrence Lessig (Law School) and William E. English. The course consisted of 26 lectures and accompanying materials.

January 15, 2011

Insurance Schemes

Insurance is a big area for abuse in local government. It usually constitutes a sizeable dollar percentage of a town's contracts, and an insurance broker who works in government can use his or her position to get the insurance business of companies that do or want to do business with the town. And insurance is an area few people understand, and which no department, office, or board may be responsible for overseeing.