Enforcement/Penalties

Enforcement & Complaints March 8, 2013

Intent and Criminal Penalties for Ethics Violations

I begin the "Intent" section of my book Local Government Ethics Programs by noting that, "One of the distinguishing aspects of government ethics is the fact that it does not deal with or require a showing of intent, willfulness, knowledge, or motive."

The next sentence is, "This is yet another reason why the criminal enforcement paradigm is not a very good fit for government ethics."

Conflicts of Interest June 5, 2012

What to Do, and Not to Do, When a Conflict Situation Becomes Public

What is the worst thing a government official can do when a conflict situation becomes public? Is it worse to misrepresent the law, to make accusations against those making the conflict situation public, or to ignore the situation and hope nobody notices?

Enforcement & Complaints May 24, 2012

A Valuable Essay on Pension Forfeiture

Check out a valuable essay on pension forfeiture by Dylan Scott, which was posted on the Governing website in February. The essay looks at the various arguments for and against pension forfeiture, looks at how these laws come about (after scandals), and provides information about state pension forfeiture laws, with links to the laws. It's an excellent resource on this issue.

Enforcement & Complaints April 27, 2012

The Going Rate, Statutes of Limitations, and Spousal-Dealing

A few issues arise in the case of a Pennsylvania state senator who reached a settlement this week with the state's ethics commission that included a fine of $21,000, according to an article in yesterday's Montgomery County Times Herald.

Ethics Codes & Reform February 11, 2012

Institutional Corruption Conference IV: A Weakness of Compliance Systems

At the Institutional Corruption conference sponsored by Harvard's Safra Ethics Center last Saturday, Ann Tenbrunsel, co-author of Blind Spots (see my blog posts on this book), noted that people act not only against what is written in ethics codes, but also against their own values. And they don't realize they're doing it. She portrayed the process by which we act as broken into three phases: prediction, action, and recollection. In the first and third phases, we tend to think in terms of values.

Enforcement & Complaints July 11, 2011

Trust and the Independence of Ethics Enforcement

The way elected officials often think about government ethics enforcement, it's almost as if they weren't being investigated and given a hearing, but were being stoned. And in a certain sense, that is what is happening.

Conflicts of Interest March 17, 2011

Do Public Service Unions Share the Obligations of Their Members?

On Sunday, the New York Times ran an article based on a long-term investigation of group homes for the developmentally disabled in New York state. It found that "in hundreds of cases reviewed by The Times, employees who sexually abused, beat or taunted residents were rarely fired, even after repeated offenses and, in many cases, were simply transferred to other group homes run by the state." It sounds as if officials were following the Catholic Church's handling of its abuse cases.

Enforcement & Complaints August 6, 2010