City Related

What does it mean to be a "high-caliber" nominee for a position on a local ethics commission? Does it mean someone who has been in law enforcement, a prosecutor or judge whose presence sends the message that the law will be enforced? Or does it mean someone who appears to be independent of the local government officials who are under the commission's jurisdiction?

Update: July 17, 2012 (see end of this post)

There are usually many ways to deal responsibly with a conflict situation. But there are also many irresponsible ways to deal with a conflict situation. One of the irresponsible ways is to be considered today in Portland, OR, according to an article on the KATU News website.

Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney raised an issue in a column this weekend that I feel should be taken seriously. The background story is that two of the current D.C. mayor's campaign aides confessed to having paid a mayoral candidate, and offered him a job in the coming administration, for him to relentlessly criticize the then mayor, who was running for re-election.

Last September, I wrote a blog post about the attempt by District of Columbia council members to block a subpoena by employing a legislative immunity defense. The case involves retaliation against a whistleblower who had alleged improper council input in the awarding of a lottery contract.

The Chicago Ethics Reform Task Force report was published yesterday. Well, at least Part 1 was published. As I said in my blog post about the announcement of the task force's creation, "four months, including the holiday season, is a short time for four people and their likely inexperienced lawyers to deal with a huge city's ethics program."

This week, a citizen in the village of Niles, IL (pop. 30,000) made a proposal for applicant disclosure, something every ethics program should have, but most do not. According to an article in yesterday's Niles Herald-Spectator, the proposal "would ask if the applicant’s officers, directors or partners are related by blood or marriage or reside in the same residence as any Niles elected official, appointed official [or] village employee.

According to the blog of Kansas City, MO's mayor, Sly James, the KC Commission on Ethics Reform will be holding a public hearing tomorrow on its draft ethics code.

Across the nation, there have been numerous occasions when local government officials oppose disclosure requirements, sometimes even the most minimal ones (for example, the name of an elected official’s employer). Arguments are made about privacy, identity theft, and overweening government. There is talk about rights, but never about obligations.

But the bottom-line argument is that if you require financial disclosure, no one will volunteer for local boards and commissions. This is stated as an immutable fact, although without evidence.

Here's an interesting conflict question. According to an article in the Tewksbury Patch this week, a special town meeting in Tewksbury, MA will soon vote on whether to go to referendum on the question of replacing the town meeting with a council.