Safra Working Papers

Conflicts of Interest October 10, 2013

California's Contract-Oriented Conflict of Interest Provision

Yesterday's blog post discussed the law giving California's Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) authority over §1090 of the state code, which deals with contract-related conflicts of interest and applies to both local and state officials. Knowing little about this section, which stands outside the state's ethics code (known as the Political Reform Act), I did a little research into it.
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play December 21, 2007

Campaign Finance and Favoritism Issues Involving Politicians' Charities

It seems so mean-spirited to talk about the conflicts of interest that arise from politicians’ charitable activities, but the revelations about the Clinton Foundation show, in big numbers, what happens so often, in smaller numbers, across the country. There are limits on how much money one can give to a candidate. But there are no limits on how much money one can give to a candidate’s charity.
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play July 10, 2008

Campaign Finance and the Perception of Independence of a Chief Financial Officer

One goal of campaign finance reform is to end the appearance and reality of corruption that comes with large campaign contributions. This appearance is attached especially to large contributions from those doing business with the city or trying to change its laws -- contractors, lobbyists, and unions. This appearance is most serious when the position has fiduciary obligations and is supposed to be independent rather than representative, such as the New York City Comptroller.

Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.
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Conflicts of Interest February 23, 2008

Can a Postage Stamp Be a Bribe?

When we talk about gifts to politicians, we often talk about gifts of nominal value being okay. Buy a politician a coffee, what’s wrong with that? But what happens when it’s the other way around? What if the politician buys a coffee for a citizen? One citizen, no problem. A few more at a fundraiser, that’s okay (and it's not buying votes, but rather buying more money). But what about thousands of citizens?
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Conflicts of Interest July 2, 2014

Can an Assistant County Attorney Sit on the Council of a City in the County?

According to an article last week in the Washington Post, the Fairfax County (VA) Attorney fired one of his office's assistant attorneys because she was elected to the council of a city within the county, even though he and his deputy who deals with personnel matters had given her permission to run for office. In a letter sent after the election, the county attorney explained the apparent contradiction as follows:
“I apol
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play March 19, 2009

Can We Do Without Pay-to-Play?

In third world countries, corruption is said to grease the wheels of commerce. We don't like to believe that this is true in the U.S., and we certainly don't have to grease the palms of ordinary government employees in order to get any service.

But what would happen if pay-to-play were truly brought to its knees?
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Local Government Practice February 2, 2010

Caring About Process

When the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives says, "the American people don’t care about process" in a news conference (the context was the process surrounding the health care bill), this topic, which is central not only to government ethics, but to our legal and political system, is worth focusing on.
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March 5, 2012

Carlos Fuentes on Government Ethics

The great Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes' 2006 novel, The Eagle's Throne, translated from the Spanish by Kristina Cordero, is one of the best political novels I've ever read. I highly recommend it. The novel also happens to contain some great quotes that touch on government ethics. The government may be Mexico's, and national rather than local, but that won't get in the way of enjoying these wonderful quotations, which you'll find by clicking on the post title or book cover.
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Enforcement & Complaints December 2, 2013

Carrigan Decision: Seeking Ethics Advice Is Due Process

The long-running Carrigan case (Carrigan I, that is) may have finally come to an end. And it's a very good end. After the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Carrigan's absurd argument that a council member has a First Amendment free speech right to vote on legislative matters where he is conflicted, the Nevada Supreme Court concluded that, if a council member chooses not to seek ethics advice and votes on a matter involving someone with whom he has a special relationship, he cannot say that the conflict provision was unconstitutionally vague with respect to due process.
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