It is natural for a current or former firefighter to be interested in serving on a fire commission, or a current or former teacher in serving on a school board. But is there an ongoing conflict of interest in doing so? The question arose on the Milford, Connecticut school board recently. Three members are former school teachers who held union leadership positions. Click here to read the rest of this blog entry. Another school board member asked them to recuse themselves from hearing union grievances.

It seems so mean-spirited to talk about the conflicts of interest that arise from politicians’ charitable activities, but the revelations about the Clinton Foundation show, in big numbers, what happens so often, in smaller numbers, across the country. There are limits on how much money one can give to a candidate. But there are no limits on how much money one can give to a candidate’s charity.

The Jacksonville Daily Record today published a story covering the first ethics training since the new code revisions were ratified by Council on Tuesday last week. "Miller instructed the Council staff not to get too bogged down in the technicalities of the law, but to adopt an overall ethical mind set to help guide their decision-making."

Jacksonville's Ethics Commission recently went through a two year revision process of their City's Ethics Code. The resulting updates were finally ratified by the City Council last Tuesday night. See the Times Union article below... Note that I will get the code revisions up in a separate blog entry later.

From: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/113007/opl_221526913.shtml.

The Florida Times-Union

November 30, 2007

Voter ID laws, which are being pushed by the Bush Administration and by Republicans at the state level, have an effect on municipal elections, as well.

I've just finished reading a book called Illicit by Moises Naim, about the trafficking of everything from people and drugs to artworks and counterfeit DVDs . One of the things Naim focuses on is why governments have so much trouble putting a dent into any of these types of trafficking. The principal reason is the structure of relationships. Government bureaucracies lose out to increasingly flexible networks of individuals. In the municipal ethics world, the situation is similar, but even worse outside the larger cities.

I also write a blog relating to my town's government. One purpose for starting the blog, and its sister information website (the town's website is so limited, it doesn't even include town ordinances, the town's code of ethics, or the town charter), was to create a model that could be used by people in other towns who are faced with an administration that is closed and acts unethically.

Is there an ethical requirement to discuss matters that are not being discussed? Dan Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence, refers to something he calls the Four Attentional Rules. 'In any group, from the family, to organizations, to entire societies, there are these unstated rules that we learn tacitly about the questions that can't be asked.' Click here to read the rest of this blog entry. The Four Attentional Rules are as follows: 1. Here's what we notice 2. Here's what we call it 3. Here's what can't be noticed 4.

Usually an ethics pledge is something required of a town official or something requested by a good government organization.