Government Lawyers: Function or Membership?
"Why hire a lawyer to do an internal investigation? It’s because you
get the privileges. Otherwise, you’d save a little money and hire a
consultant or accountant." These are the wise words of Bruce A.
Safra Working Papers
Conflicts of Interest
December 20, 2008
Government Officials' Charities -- Secretive and Easy to Corrupt
December 4, 2007
Government transparency website...
Found this site today:
http://www.governmentdocs.org/
Their Description: www.governmentdocs.org was created to advance the values of open and accountable government. This site gives the public an unprecedented level of access to government documents by allowing users to browse, search, and review hundreds of thousands of pages acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other public disclosure, or “sunshine,” laws."
http://www.governmentdocs.org/
Their Description: www.governmentdocs.org was created to advance the values of open and accountable government. This site gives the public an unprecedented level of access to government documents by allowing users to browse, search, and review hundreds of thousands of pages acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other public disclosure, or “sunshine,” laws."
February 20, 2011
Grand Jury Lays Into Broward County (FL) School Board
You know you're doing a pretty poor job with government ethics when a
grand jury recommends that you be all but abolished. This is the case
with the Broward County School Board, according to a
report
published on Frday. It concludes, on p. 48:
-
Unfortunately based on the history of this Board as an institution, we
have no confIdence in their ability to make meaningful changes and to
adhere to them.
April 20, 2012
Grand Jury Report on Manipulation of the Suffolk County (NY) Ethics Commission
For the second time in a year, a local ethics commission has been
the subject of a grand jury report. The first was San Francisco's
(see my
blog post). There, it was a civil grand jury and the focus was
on the commission. Here and now, it is a criminal grand jury, and
the focus is on the county executive and other officials, as well as
ethics commission members. The county is Suffolk, on Long Island, a
suburban county of 1.5 million people.
May 22, 2014
Green Bay Punts on Lobbying Law
A local lobbying law is only as good as its enforcement, especially
when local government leaders provide no leadership.
According to a column by Scott Cooper Williams in the Green Bay (WI) Press Gazette yesterday, Green Bay passed a lobbying registration law three years ago and, since that time, only seven lobbyists, representing two total clients, registered.
According to a column by Scott Cooper Williams in the Green Bay (WI) Press Gazette yesterday, Green Bay passed a lobbying registration law three years ago and, since that time, only seven lobbyists, representing two total clients, registered.
Ethics Commissions & Administration
June 10, 2011
Guaranteeing an Ethics Commission's Budget
The dream of every ethics commission is to have a guaranteed budget.
But it is not really a dream for two reasons. One, there are ethics
commissions with guaranteed budgets. And two, it is a reasonable policy
that can be countered only by a local legislative body's need for
control. This blog post will look at the arguments for and against a
guaranteed budget, as well as several examples of and approaches to
guaranteeing budgets for ethics commissions and similar independent
bodies and agencies.
The Arguments For and Against
The Arguments For and Against
Ethics Commissions & Administration
April 5, 2010
Guarding Ethics Guardians
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? In English: Who will guard the guardians? This is a question many people ask about ethics commissions. But the question I would like to raise is, Is this the right question to ask?
Transparency & Disclosure
June 30, 2010
Guidelines for Transparency in Local Government Legislative Redistricting
The great majority of what is written about legislative redistricting
focuses on state and federal redistricting. But many cities, even some
towns, have districts too, and resetting district boundaries is an
important political process designed to prevent public participation and to undermine public trust.
January 30, 2011
Gwinnett County Ethics Reform I - The Failure to Follow Formal Processes
The boom years of the Oughts were very good to Gwinnett County,
a
suburban Atlanta county of 800,000 that grew by a third in the last
decade. But boom times are rarely good for local government ethics, and
Gwinnett County appears to be no exception.
January 31, 2011
Gwinnett County Ethics Reform II - Recommendations by the Vinson Institute and the Grand Jury
In this second of three blog posts on ethics reform in Gwinnett County,
Georgia, I will look at recommendations for ethics reform made by a grand jury in its October 2010 report, and by the Carl Vinson Institute of
Government at the University of Georgia in its 2007
report commissioned by the board of county commissioners.
February 1, 2011
Gwinnett County Ethics Reform III - County Officials' Response to Ethics Recommendations
This third of three posts on ethics reform in Gwinnett County, Georgia
looks at the county officials' response to the recommendations in the
2007
report drafted by the Carl
Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, and in the grand jury's October 2010 report.
Resources & Learning
August 23, 2011
Habits of the Heart II: Civic Membership and the Common Good (Summer Reading)
Trust in government is a requirement for participation in
government, what the authors of Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life
refer to as "civic membership." This is strongest at the local
level, where we are most likely to get involved in person rather
than through phone calls, petitions, contributions, and voting.
Resources & Learning
August 23, 2011
Habits of the Heart III: The Obligations of Professionals in Local Government (Summer Reading)
Conflicts of Interest
November 20, 2010
Handling an Indefinite Conflict Before It Becomes Definite
Indefinite conflicts can cause a lot of problems for officials. They see them as not yet ripe, not something they should have to deal with yet. But others see them as looming in the future, and want to know how the official plans to deal with them. One such indefinite conflict is the subject of controversy in Tampa,
where a council candidate is the executive director of a nonprofit
organization that has a large contract with the city to build
affordable apartments. This sort of indefinite conflict comes up a lot.
January 24, 2014
Happy Birthday, Citizens United!
Posted on January 24th, 2014 on the Harvard Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics Blog:
June 23, 2010
Harassment and Intimidation by Government Officials — Another Visit to Maricopa County
What do the BP oil spill and local government ethics have in common?
Kenneth Feinberg.
June 18, 2007
Hartford "Political Boss" Makes the System Work for Him, Complete with Conflicts and Self-Help Contract Specs
Today's Hartford Courant gives us an excellent picture of a very creative way of making the municipal government work for you, conflicts of interest be damned.
The municipal entrepreneur in this instance is Abraham L. Giles, referred to as a 'North End political boss.' His scheme involves vulnerable city residents -- evicted tenants.
January 4, 2013
Hatch Act Bill Amended to Let Local Government Employees Run for Office
The last Congress is known for doing very little, but a couple of
weeks ago it actually passed a bill that will have a serious effect on
local government ethics: the
Hatch Act Modernization Act of 2012 According to a press
release on the bill, it "removes the federal prohibition on
most state and local government employees who want to run for
partisan political office.