City Related

In a recent blog entry, I looked at how a couple of Connecticut towns are using the Internet to get citizen feedback and provide transparency. But some cities have gone much further, according to a syndicated column by Neal Peirce.

The passing of new ethics code provisions in Anoka, MN (pop. 18,000) provides a fine case study of how to try to pass off useless ethics code reform as something valuable.

A lie to protect oneself or to mislead others in one's own interest is as bald a conflict of interest as there can be. But since it usually involves no money, and since it is hard to prove the difference between a lie and a mistake in knowledge or interpretation (which is why the word "lie" is never used; "misrepresentation" and "false statement" are preferred terms), a lie is almost never a violation of a government ethics code. In addition, most people don't seem to think lying is such a bad thing. After all, we all do it, and we all know that politicians do little else.

Most local government ethics codes do not explicitly deal with settlement agreements, but most state ethics codes do. I left settlement agreements out of my first draft of the City Ethics Model Code, but I have just added a provision, Section 213(5). The language is based on that of several state ethics codes and rules, especially those of Ohio and Georgia.

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There are many ways for elected officials to undermine democracy, but trying to scare people away from registering to vote is among the most insidious.

Money may be the root of all evil, but it's a nice way to spice up ethics training.

Take the Ethics Rock! program, designed for lawyers who have lots of money to spend on CLE credits. Ethics case studies are done to the tunes of such songs as "American Pie" and "A Day in the Life." The songs are performed by a professional singer-guitarist, on tour.

Local government ethics case study songs come to mind easily, with such numbers as "Chicago," "New York, New York," and Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee."

The New York State Commission on Public Integrity released a report yesterday on the allegations relating to the Spitzer Administration's attempts to gather and make public the travel abuses of the Senate Majority Leader, in order to tarnish his reputation. See the New York Times article.

According to a recent article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the chair of one of the city's economic development commissions made an unusual deal with, and a half-million-dollar instant profit from (the purchase and sale transactions were filed at the same time), the commission three years before he became a member.

In my recent entry about Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, I said nothing about the fact that the university center he was seeking funds for has his name on it. An excellent entry by John Fund placed up on Huffington Post today focuses on this part of the story.

The drug war is not really about drugs, it's about addiction. And dependency is what powers addiction.

As it turns out, dependency is also what powers the drug war, at least in Texas. Local government agencies, and often local governments themselves, are dependent on the money that comes from asset forfeitures related to the drug trade. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars.

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