Safra Working Papers | City Ethics

July 30, 2010

The New, Leaky Utah Legislative Ethics Complaint Process

In a recent blog post, I wrote about a federal third circuit decision that a law prohibiting an ethics complainant from announcing the filing of the complaint violates the complainant's first amendment rights. This decision contradicts a second circuit decision that upheld a law prohibiting the announcing of the filing of a judicial ethics complaint.

October 1, 2009

The Next Stage in the Baltimore Legislative Immunity Case

The next round of memoranda have been filed by the parties to the Dixon case, where the Baltimore mayor (though the case relates to her activities as council president) is raising a defense of legislative immunity in a criminal proceeding for perjury (relating to failure to disclose) to keep out evidence that she knew that a developer who gave her many gifts was involved in a development with the city.

Local Government Practice May 28, 2011

The Obligations of a County Administrator on the Way Out After a Scandal

As if Florida hasn't had enough scandals lately, there is now a mess in Sarasota County, on Florida's Gulf Coast. The focus is on terrible procurement policies and procedures that apparently allowed a lot of unethical behavior to occur. But as is usually the case, the center of the problem appears to have been the adminstration's attitude. And that attitude seems to have come out in the negotiations over the county administrator's severance package.

An Environment of Intimidation and No-Bid Contracts

Conflicts of Interest April 7, 2009

The Obligations of a Local Government Attorney

According to an article in today's New York Times, the reason that charges were dropped against Sen. Ted Stevens is that federal prosecutors repeatedly failed to disclose information that may have helped the defense. Most of the prosecutors' misconduct was discovered and remedied, as far as possible, by the judge.

Ethics Commissions & Administration February 14, 2014

The Obstacles to and Goals of Citizen Participation

Although citizen participation is not part of government ethics, it's important to keep reminding ourselves that it is central to government ethics, because it is a principal goal of government ethics programs.

June 7, 2010

The Office of Congressional Ethics Leaves Its Barn and the Congressional Black Caucus Tries to Rein It In

While I was away on vacation, the new, quasi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) was in the news a lot.

Going Outside of Congress

Conflicts of Interest September 28, 2013

The Other Side of Nepotism

There is usually another side of the coin, and that other side is often ignored in drafting a government ethics code. The other side of the nepotism coin came up recently in an ethics proceeding in Stamford, CT.

Local Government Practice September 30, 2013

The Oversight Relationship

Here's an interesting local government ethics scenario from Ottawa that deals with the often neglected oversight relationship. According to an article this week in the Ottawa Citizen, six people died in a recent bus-train accident at the Woodroffe Avenue train crossing in Ottawa. This brought attention to the safety of the train crossing's design.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play December 30, 2010

The Pay-to-Play Culture of Prince George's County, MD

The recent arrest of the Prince George's County (MD) executive and his wife, who is a new member of the county council, shows how wrong it is to give the county executive and individual council members power over development projects, a topic I've written about with respect to Dallas and Chicago.

January 5, 2010

The People Speak: Bruno Trial Jurors' Opinions

If citizens could once in their lives be a juror in a government ethics trial, we would have incredible ethics laws. This is the conclusion one comes to after reading, in an Albany Times-Union article, the comments of jurors in the trial of former NY senate majority leader Joseph Bruno for misuse of office and failure to disclose.

Here are a few of the jurors' comments:

June 18, 2014

The People's Pledge in Mayoral Races

In 2012, Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown signed a People's Pledge in their U.S. senatorial race in Massachusetts. The candidates agreed to donate to a charity of the other candidate's choice a sum equal to 50% of any advertisement run by any outside group or PAC. The goal was to let the candidates control their own race and to prevent outside groups from changing the nature of the race, especially by running negative ads, as they tend to do.

Ethics Codes & Reform August 8, 2008

The Perception of Improper Ethics Reform

The passing of new ethics code provisions in Anoka, MN (pop. 18,000) provides a fine case study of how to try to pass off useless ethics code reform as something valuable.

Local Government Practice February 5, 2010

The Perfect Justification for Unethical Conduct

Almost three years ago, I wrote a blog post about the scandal that rocked my town, North Haven, CT. Since then, one of the two arrested department heads, the finance director, was given accelerated rehabilitation (lenient probation) because he turned state's evidence. The other department head, and his wife, who was his assistant, spent years delaying trial, and then also asked for accelerated rehabilitation. They had been charged with embezzlement, larceny, forgery, and conspiracy.

Conflicts of Interest April 23, 2011

The Perils of Nepotism

I was just reading a review in The Economist of Francis Fukayama's new book, The Origins of Political Order. The review made me think differently about nepotism, a government ethics issue that is usually considered rather minor.

Conflicts of Interest September 9, 2013

The Perils of Prohibiting Officials from Having Conflicts of Interest

One of the most frequent mistakes in the drafting of a government ethics code is prohibiting officials from having conflicts of interest. There is nothing wrong with an official having a conflict of interest. There is only something wrong with an official creating a conflict or failing to deal responsibly with a pre-existing conflict. As can be seen in Massachusetts, where such a prohibition has made big waves, the prohibition of having a conflict can cause serious problems.

Conflicts of Interest August 27, 2008

The Perils of Valuable Expertise

According to a recent article in the Daily Sentinel, a Mesa County (CO) Commissioner says that he is running for re-election on his energy-industry experience (he is a principal of an energy services company that contracts with local oil and gas companies). Energy appears to be a principal industry in Mesa County, and one that often comes before the County Commission.

Local Government Practice February 2, 2009

The Personal Side of Ethics

So much of government ethics involves the contrast, and sometimes the collision, between ethics and law. Too often the personal aspect of government ethics is overlooked. All three get twisted together in a very simple matter that occurred last week in the Escondido (CA) city council, according to an article in the North County Times.

Local Government Practice October 30, 2013

The Philadelphia Ethics Board's Proposed Gift Regulation

Updated: November 20, 2013 (see below)

The gift regulation proposed by Philadelphia's ethics board last week (attached; see below) provides a great opportunity to consider many issues involving gift bans and exceptions.

Enforcement & Complaints July 17, 2010

The Political Use of Ethics Complaints, and the Manipulation of the Press

There's a good opinion piece by Austin American-Statesman columnist Jason Embry this week on the political use of ethics complaints. The instances of abuse of the ethics process is what has led many jurisdictions to prohibit any mention of filing an ethics complaint and to prohibit the filing of ethics complaints within sixty or so days of an election.

May 10, 2011

The Politicization of Montana's Political Practices Commissioner

According to an article in the Billings Gazette last week, the Montana Political Practices Commissioner will have to step down from her position, because her nomination by the governor was not approved by the state legislature. Her office, which handles ethics, campaign finance, and lobbying matters, has jurisdiction over local elected officials.