Safra Working Papers

Enforcement & Complaints December 16, 2010

A Six-Year Legal Battle Between a County Ethics Commission and a Former County Attorney

At last week's COGEL conference, I learned about a judicial case involving the Anne Arundel County (MD) Ethics Commission, which has been going on for six years. A decision of the Court of Special Appeals last November is worth a look. There's a lot of interesting material for local government ethics professionals. Two of the issues the case raises are the difference between legal ethics and government ethics, and the filing of ethics complaints by politicians.
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play April 18, 2010

A Solution to the Problem of Government Aides Involved in Political Campaigns

Pennsylvanians have, for some time, been entertained with a scandal called Bonusgate, which involves state legislative staff not only being used for campaigns, but getting bonuses, which makes a common practice appear even uglier. The ugliness has recently increased in intensity:  defense counsel for two of the legislators is accusing the attorney general (who instituted the criminal actions) of doing the very same thing, without the bonuses. And the attorney general, of a different political party than the great majority of the accused legislators, is running for governor.
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Conflicts of Interest January 4, 2009

A Suit Against Council Members That Squares the Virtuous Circle of Conflict of Interest and Legislative Immunity

For all you local government legislative immunity fans, here's a case you'll enjoy (other local government ethics people should find it interesting, as well). A Virginia state senator has sued members of a city council for what they did in their legislative capacity, despite the fact that she knows she herself cannot be sued for what she's done in her legislative capacity. That's a nice start, isn't it?
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Ethics Commissions & Administration December 2, 2009

A Toothless Ethics Commission Seeks Information About the Effects of Its Recommendations


Ethics reform is difficult without a scandal. If your local government doesn't have an ethics commission, it's hard to form one. If there's an ethics commission without teeth, it's hard to even get dentures. And in Denver, according to an article in the Denver Post, it's hard to even get information about what happens after a toothless ethics commission recommends disclipinary action.
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Transparency & Disclosure October 24, 2009

A Very Short Rant on Financial Disclosure and Ethics Self-Regulation

It's always nice to see politicians provide evidence for the argument that ethics self-regulation doesn't work, but it's rare for it to happen in so public a way as occurred yesterday. According to an article in Roll Call, Rep. John Carter (R-TX), "the point man for Republicans seeking to strip Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) of his gavel," did not disclose large profits from a sale of Exxon stock, even after Roll Call contacted him about the omission a year ago.
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April 20, 2015

About City Ethics

CITY ETHICS is a non-profit organization formed in 2000. Its purpose is to provide a centralized location for information and resources for all forms of local government ethics programs. City Ethics was started by attorney and former federal prosecutor Carla Miller and her husband, Don McClintock, who has a long career in the technology sector.

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Ethics Codes & Reform May 13, 2008

Above the Law Is Well Below Ethics

How a big-city police chief responds to his commission of an ethics violation is more important than the violation itself. The worst thing he can do is act as if he is above the law, as if ethics laws, not to mention ethics considerations, do not apply to him.

Sadly, Miami's police chief, John Timoney, has done the wrong thing almost every time he had the opportunity.

Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.
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August 26, 2012

Absentee Ballot Fraud in Southern Florida

In this year of endless talk about voter fraud, there is not all that much talk about one area of fraud that has actually been proven to exist, and to make a difference:  absentee ballot fraud. This kind of fraud even comes with its own profession, the absentee ballot broker (boletera in southern Florida).

Boleteras are hired by local campaigns to go into nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and sometimes homes to help people fill out absentee ballots. The question is, how much help do they give? A little help is a good deed, a lot of help is fraud.
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Local Government Practice August 6, 2012

Abuse of Citizen Ignorance in an Ethics-Related Referendum

Update: August 9, 2012 (see below)

People tend to think that all good government people are alike. The thinking goes that those who favor the improvement of ethics programs also favor such things as term limits, referendums and initiatives, and pension forfeiture by those found to have violated the public's trust. As a matter of fact, I don't favor any of these other good government approaches.
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Enforcement & Complaints May 6, 2009

Abusing Right to Bring Ethics Complaints

In March, I started out a blog entry by saying that "I thought I might write a piece about using ethics complaints for the purpose of political harassment" with respect to Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. But then I discovered that the particular ethics complaint was legitimate, and talked about the complaint itself and how it applied to local government situations.
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