Safra Working Papers

March 9, 2007

Some Weak Defenses of Conflicts in the News This Week

Understatement: After one county district attorney recused himself from prosecuting the man who hired him for his job, the neighboring county district attorney accepted the case, despite the fact that he leased office space and had accepted a thousand-dollar campaign contribution from the suspect's nephew, who happened to be listed as the suspect's defense attorney. 'To suggest that that's a conflict of interest is to suggest that I have an integrity problem, which is simply not the case,' said the D.A.
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Enforcement & Complaints June 12, 2009

Sometimes the Accuser Is More Unethical Than the Accused

"Investigators, like prosecutors, must understand that the desire to go after big game to garner big headlines may be as unethical as the offenses they are pursuing."

This is the central point of a formal statement made by the new chair of the New York State Commission on Public Integrity concerning the report of the Inspector General on the former executive director of the the commission and the commission itself.
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Conflicts of Interest November 28, 2006

Special Consideration

This is the place to discuss another basic statement of conflict of interest, relating to how officials act toward city residents. Other codes use the language of "misuse of office." Please state your preferences and your experiences with both approaches.

100(5). Special Consideration

An official or employee* may not grant or receive, directly or indirectly, any special consideration, treatment, or advantage beyond what is generally available to city residents.

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April 29, 2015

Speech given to OGE by Dennis Thompson

The Paradoxes of Political Ethics

Dennis F. Thompson 
Alfred North Whitehead Professor of Political Philosophy Emeritus - Harvard University

Government Ethics Conference

Office of Government Ethics
Virginia Beach, Virginia
September 11-13, 1991

Good afternoon: members of the “priesthood of ethics counselors,” “roving commissars” of ethics, “mullahs of the U.S. Government.”

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Ethics Codes & Reform April 15, 2007

Spelling It Out

Many areas of ethics have little overlap with municipal ethics. But one rather specialized area that I came across has some interesting applications: the ethics of casting love spells. According to an article in about.com, 'the standard position among Pagans is that you should never do spells to make a particular person love you.' With municipal politicians, this should apply also to spells to make everyone love you.
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Resources & Learning April 15, 2014

Spring Reading: "Perlmann's Silence" and Self-Justification

Self-justification is an important element in ethical misconduct, cover-ups, and officials' public denials and explanations of conduct. It aids and abets our blind spots. It is a sign of weakness, anxiety, and fear more than of poor character

Self-justification is something each of us engages in. Sometimes we fight it, sometimes we effectively compromise with it, and sometimes we give in to it. The one thing most of us rarely do is think or talk openly about it.
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