Safra Working Papers | City Ethics

Conflicts of Interest February 28, 2011

A Few Interesting Conflict Issues Raised in a Western Suburb of Boston

According to an article in the Metro West Daily News on Friday, the Ashland (MA) board of selectmen sent two reported allegations of possible acts of ethical misconduct to the state ethics commission. The request sought not enforcement, but clarification. I hope by "clarification" the board meant that it is seeking advice about continuing the behavior. Its other option was to file a complaint with respect to past behavior.

November 7, 2013

A Florida Legislative Committee Calls for the Suspension of the Palm Beach County EC

Toward the end of a video of the November 4 meeting of the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, the committee vice-chair says that the testimony he heard was very "troubling." I felt the same way about the meeting as a whole, but for completely different reasons. What occurred at this meeting is as troubling as anything I have seen in seven years of following local government ethics matters nationwide.

Local Government Practice October 22, 2013

A Functional Definition of a Government Employee

In many jurisdictions, lawyers have sought to be excluded from ethics program jurisdiction, arguing that their conduct is regulated by their state's attorney disciplinary process. Recently, in Louisiana, other professionals have sought to be excluded from the state ethics program's jurisdiction (which includes local officials) pursuant to a different argument.

The issue is, When do employees of a private company become government employees for purposes of ethics program jurisdiction over them?

Transparency & Disclosure October 24, 2009

A Gift Disclosure Loophole for Texas Local Government Officials

An article on the Texas Watchdog website focuses on a serious loophole in the Texas gift disclosure policy, which applies to local government officials. Section 176.003(a-1) of the Local Government Code (Title 5, Subchapter C) states:

Conflicts of Interest December 21, 2010

A Gift Exception That Undermines the Rule

My last blog post involved the Baltimore Employees' Retirement System board calling in an image consultant to help protect it from an investigation by the city's ethics board.

Conflicts of Interest November 17, 2010

A Gift of Books: Intellectual vs. Monetary Value

More from Madison. According to an article last month on the Channel3000.com website, a stagehands union sent 28 copies of a book on creating and maintaining healthy arts organizations to members of the Madison council and members of an ad hoc committee on the future of the city's arts center. The union insists that the books were loaned, not given, and that the book doesn't even take a position on how to handle the arts center.

March 3, 2010

A Golden Revolving Door

New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has an ongoing problem confusing his job as mayor, his ownership of a big media company, and his philanthropic activities. One of the symptoms of this problem is the unusual revolving door he provides for some of his closest advisers.

Enforcement & Complaints January 6, 2014

A Good Ethics Settlement in Ohio

Here is the story of a good settlement reached in an Ohio ethics proceeding involving a council member from a very small city. According to a recent article in the Canton Rep, the council member voted on an addendum to the lease of a golf course despite the fact that he lived on adjoining property.

January 16, 2007

A Good Example of a Bad Government Organizational Culture

There's a lot of talk about organizational culture and the effect it can have on individuals' unethical conduct, but it's rare to find reported instances of poor organizational cultures that aren't extreme, such as Chicago. Even Enron had an excellent ethics program, and its misconduct appears to have been limited to high-level management. The U.S. Department of the Interior seems to be an excellent example of a terrible organizational culture, at least according to its Inspector General, Earl E. Devaney.

Conflicts of Interest June 7, 2011

A Good Example of Problems That Can Arise from Privatization

It's nice when something you write about in a blog shows up on the front page of the New York Times the following day. Yesterday, in a post called "Privatization and Transparency," I discussed new types of privatization involving nonprofits, which raise new sorts of problems. One type of nonprofit operates government-funded facilities or programs, such as schools. These nonprofits are sometimes a way for organizers to make money by selling property or services to the schools.

Ethics Commissions & Administration January 31, 2014

A Government Attorney Ethics Advice Case Study from Florida

Here is a concrete example of the problem of allowing local government attorneys to provide ethics advice that protects local officials, a problem that Florida state senator Jeff Clemens and the Florida League of Cities want to harden into state law in SB 606 (see my recent blog post for a discussion of the problem).

Local Government Practice March 31, 2010

A Government Attorney's Discretion

Georgia seems intent on providing an entire course on the ethical obligations of government attorneys. This time it's the obligations of the state's top government attorney, the attorney general. There's also an issue concerning special government attorneys.

The governor wants to file a suit to challenge the constitutionality of the federal health care reform bill. The elected attorney general says that it's unlikely to be successful, and would be a waste of state resources.

Transparency & Disclosure June 4, 2012

A Government Ethics Approach to Open Records

Luis Toro, the director of Colorado Ethics Watch, raised an important local government ethics issue in a recent Huffington Post post. It is a problem that is not peculiar to Colorado. It is also a problem that could benefit from a government ethics approach.

Ethics Codes & Reform October 15, 2010

A Government Ethics Definition of "Ethics"

Most people define "ethics" in a way that doesn't really fit into the scheme of government ethics, which focuses on conflicts of interest. Even the definitions section of this website defines "ethics" as "a major branch of philosophy that involves analysis of right conduct."

December 30, 2010

A Grand Jury Report in Florida Recommends Numerous Ethics Reforms

In February, Florida governor Charlie Crist asked for a grand jury to report on government corruption in Florida. The first interim report was filed yesterday. Its recommendations involve local government as well as state ethics laws.

The report begins (p. 3) by characterizing fraud, waste, and abuse of government resources as "Florida's Corruption Tax," a nice way to spin the issue.

Conflicts of Interest October 19, 2013

A Great Column About a City Planner Moonlighting As a Developer

It's exciting to read a column on a local government ethics matter that shows as deep understanding and as clear explanation as the column by Ottawa Citizen editorial board member Mohammed Adam that appeared yesterday. The column focuses on the problems that arise when a city planner is a small property developer on the side.

Local Government Practice November 7, 2012

A High-Level Official's Obligation to Seek Out the Truth

Several years ago, one of my town's department heads was arrested for embezzlement of funds. When someone had reported to the first selectman (effectively the mayor) that this was going on, the first selectman went to the department head and asked him if the report was true. The department head denied it. And the matter was dropped.

Did the first selectman have an obligation to the public not to accept his department head's word, but instead dig deeper to find out the truth, or have this done by the appropriate authorities?

Conflicts of Interest November 13, 2013

A Judicial Decision Involving the Language of "Interest" and Non-Financial Benefits

As I keep saying, conflicts are about "benefits" and "relationships" rather than about "interests," and this should be reflected in the language of ethics codes. The clash of these two kinds of language is the subject of a recent Virginia Supreme Court decision, Newberry Station Homeowners Assoc. et al v. Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County (April 18, 2013).

March 15, 2013

A Judicial Decision on Restricting Local Official Political Activity

There's a lot of food for thought in the February 21 decision of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in the case Lodge No. 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police v. City of Philadelphia.

Local Government Practice December 3, 2010

A Lack of Empathy

Many people take a character approach to government ethics. That is, they see government ethics as a matter of integrity, and ethics training as a matter of improving an individual's character.

But the aspect of character most important to ethics is not goodness, honesty, or integrity. It is empathy, as defined by President Obama and discussed in a 2009 blog post of mine entitled "Moral Imagination."