Safra Working Papers | City Ethics

Local Government Practice April 16, 2011

Government Attorney Advice and the Attorney-Client Privilege

In my last post, I dealt with the many arguments against application of the attorney-client privilege in the context of an inspector general, or ethics commission, investigation of official misconduct. One thing I did not do was respond to the general argument in favor of attorney-client privilege.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play May 11, 2011

Government Contractor Contributions and What To Do About Them

Last month, the Obama administration drafted an executive order that would require those seeking federal government contracts to disclose their political contributions, and those of their directors, officers, affiliates, and subsidiaries, made in the two years before they bid for a contract. This draft executive order has been the subject of a great and unusual controversy.

July 23, 2009

Government Corruption Arrests in NJ: Abuse of Nonprofits, Conduit Contributions, and A Network of Crooked Officials

A few local government ethics issues come together in the story behind the arrest today of 44 people in a political corruption and international money laundering ring based in New Jersey. The story is best told, so far, in the press release of the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play October 22, 2010

Government Employee Union Campaign Contributions

According to an article in today's Wall Street Journal, business organizations are arguing that government employee unions have a conflict of interest that should prevent them from supporting candidates for office. "Public-sector unions have a guaranteed source of revenue—you and me as taxpayers," the executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Workforce Freedom Initiative is quoted as saying.

Conflicts of Interest January 26, 2010

Government Employees and the Class Exception to Conflicts of Interest

Yesterday, the California Supreme Court published its decision relating to the conflict of interest charges against five members of San Diego's pension board, which I discussed a couple months ago in a blog post.

December 26, 2007

Government Ethics and Charlie Wilson's War

I would like to nominate the new film Charlie Wilson’s War, a Mike Nichols film starring Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Julia Roberts, for the City Ethics Top Ten Ethics Films list. Charlie Wilson is a multi-term congressman whose principal activities are drinking, diddling, and (a distant third) deal-making. He happens to also become the major force behind U.S.

Ethics Codes & Reform September 25, 2008

Government Ethics and the Clash Between Rules-Based and Ends-Based Ethical Approaches

The most serious obstacle to the acceptance of conflict of interest programs in government is the clash between government ethics' use of a rules-based (deontological) ethical approach, and government officials' use of an ends-based (teleological) ethical approach.

Ethics Codes & Reform September 23, 2013

Government Ethics and the Limits of Mental Bandwidth

Sendhil Mullainathan's new book Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much (Times Books) has been getting a lot of attention lately. Although I haven't read it yet, I was intrigued by Cass Sunstein's review of the book in the September 26 issue of the New York Review of Books. Sunstein focuses on the idea of bandwidth as applied to the human mind.

Local Government Practice November 5, 2013

Government Ethics Arguments Against Prayer at Local Government Meetings

Tomorrow morning, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of Town of Greece v. Galloway, regarding prayer at meetings of local legislative bodies. In addition to the important constitutional questions regarding separation of church and state, there are government ethics questions involved. This post will consider those ethics questions.

Ethics Codes & Reform April 12, 2010

Government Ethics As a Double-Edged Sword

In the hands of politicians, government ethics can be wielded as a double-edged sword, as can be seen in recent events in Mandeville (LA), a city of 12,000 just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.

Enforcement & Complaints January 13, 2010

Government Ethics Enforcement: An Experiment Worth Trying

Can the government ethics enforcement community learn anything from a successful experiment in the crime enforcement field? With tongue only partly in cheek, I will try to show ways in which the government ethics enforcement community could learn a thing or two.

This week's New York Times Magazine ran an excellent piece by Jeffrey Rosen on a successful approach to crime enforcement. Here's the essence of the article's message:

Transparency & Disclosure March 27, 2007

Government Ethics for Citizens

Personal interest vs. public interest is central to government ethics. We tend to think, however, that it's central to them (officials) not to us (citizens), and that we have nothing to learn from this sort of ethics.

Well, we're wrong.

Resources & Learning April 26, 2012

Government Ethics in a Nutshell

Well worth reading, as a encapsulated version of what is essential to a local government ethics program, is the statement of Mark Davies, executive director of the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board, gave to the Chicago Ethics Reform Task Force, which will soon be making recommendatio

August 14, 2009

Government Ethics in the City of Albany, NY: Gifts and a Draft Ethics Code

There's a lot of talk about the lack of government ethics in Albany, New York State's capital, but not much about the state of government ethics in the city of Albany itself. In July, the Albany Times-Union ran a long article on the mayor and the police chief's relationship with the city's largest developer.

March 26, 2014

Government Ethics Is Grandly Unified in Texas

According to Wikipedia, a Grand Unified Theory (GUT) is "a model in particle physics in which at high energy, the three gauge interactions of the Standard Model which define the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions, are merged into one single interaction."

Conflicts of Interest November 5, 2009

Government Ethics Is Not About Character, But About Making Decisions in a Professional Manner

One thing I've failed to do in this blog is sufficiently emphasize that making ethical decisions in government is not primarily about being a good, ethical person, as most people seem to think. Essentially, it is the same as making other decisions. As I recently wrote, "with effective training, in an ethical environment, government ethics should be just another professional routine."

Dealing Responsibly with Conflicts of Interest Is Professional

Conflicts of Interest November 14, 2012

Government Ethics Professionals Also Respond Personally to Conflict Allegations

News from British Columbia provides strong evidence of how difficult it is for anyone to deal with his own conflict situation, even a government ethics professional. No one should think that it is easy for someone to see an appearance of impropriety relating to himself or to respond to a conflict allegation against him in anything but a personal manner. A government ethics program must facilitate the process of dealing responsibly with a conflict situation by allowing, or even requiring, officials to seek neutral, professional advice.

Ethics Commissions & Administration February 18, 2014

Government Ethics Specialists Need Not Apply

I just received an e-mail announcing a search for a new editor of the journal Public Integrity, the only academic journal in the field in which I work. Here is the description of the journal by its publisher on the journal's webpage:

Governance is changing rapidly, and change brings compelling ethical challenges.

Conflicts of Interest July 7, 2008

Government Ethics vs. The Right to Sign Petitions

[This blog entry has been substantially changed based on a response from the Phoenix City Manager, who provided information about the reasons for the City Attorney's position and the relationship of the City Attorney with the mayor.]

Ethics Codes & Reform February 27, 2006

Government Imposing Ethics Code on Contractor

Has any one had any experience where the government unit has oursourced what would normally be considered a government activity and then imposed the government's ethics policy on the contractor?