Safra Working Papers

November 21, 2006

Libel and the Media's Role in Ethics Oversight

Open Letter to Illinois Chief Justice Robert R. Thomas: The news media are probably the most important single element in providing oversight in government ethics matters. And the most effective way to keep the news media from doing their job is to file a libel suit. The New York Times ran an excellent article yesterday by Katharine Q. Seelye, which focused on a libel suit you brought against a small-town newspaper. Apparently, the paper accused you of having traded a vote for a political favor.
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Ethics Codes & Reform March 29, 2007

Life Without an Ethics Code

In Isle La Motte, Vermont, according to a recent article in the Burlington Free Press, the longtime town clerk and treasurer diverted $100,000 of town funds to her own use. Before the town learned of this, its Selectboard (the town's elected executive board) had arranged to allow her to pay back the money along with interest and audit and legal expenses. One member of the Selectboard was the town clerk's father, and another was a close friend of hers.
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Ethics Codes & Reform May 2, 2009

Like Constitutions, Interpreting Ethics Codes Requires Understanding, Humility, and Transparency

Here's a short opinion piece by Walter Dellinger, head of the Office of Legal Counsel under Pres. Clinton. It's part of a series of such pieces that will appear in tomorrow's Washington Post. The opinions concern what Pres. Obama should be looking for in his first Supreme Court nominee. After Dellinger's opinion piece, I tie his ideas into government ethics. I think they're very important observations.
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January 4, 2011

Littering and Government Ethics

Sometimes concepts derived from one area of study, for one purpose, can be valuable in another area of study, for another purpose. This is true of the concepts of "injunctive norm" and "descriptive norm" derived by social psychology professor Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University for use in the area of persuading people not to do certain things, such as litter.
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Ethics Commissions & Administration November 1, 2011

Lobbying An Ethics Commission Should Be Lobbying

Can a local ethics commission be lobbied? It's conceivable, especially with respect to recommendations for ethics reform. It is important for an ethics commission to have an ethics code provision or regulation that prohibits ex parte communications relating to any proceeding. But with respect to ethics reform recommendations, the public's input is important, and there would seem to be no reason why a registered lobbyist shouldn't be able to put in her two cents.
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Transparency & Disclosure July 25, 2014

Lobbying Subject Disclosure

When a lobbying code requires that lobbyists report "specific lobbying issues" or "the subjects on which they have lobbied," what exactly is required? The best approach is to include more specific language in the disclosure section, such as "information sufficient for an ordinary member of the public to identify the law or resolution, contract, grant, regulation, real property or project, rule, proceeding, board or commission determination, or other matter."
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Conflicts of Interest January 18, 2014

Lobbyists for Local Governments

Over the last few decades, governments have privatized many of their functions. One function that governments have begun privatizing in recent years is lobbying higher-level governments. Since every government is at a higher level than a local government (think not just regional, state, and federal, but numerous agencies at each of these levels), local government has the most lobbying to do.
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