Skip to main content

City Related

The Importance of Being Readable

One of the most serious problems with municipal ethics codes is their unreadability. Few of those who write them seem to consider the capabilities of the code's audience: municipal officials and employees without a legal education. In 1998, the Securities and Exchange Commission insisted that documents intended to disclose information to the public should be written in plain English, and to help with the process, it put together a Plain English Handbook: How to Create Clear SEC Disclosure Documents (www.sec.gov/pdf/handbook.pdf).

A City Where "We Don't Want Nobody Nobody Sent"

Patronage is the most basic of all municipal conflicts of interest. It involves not only self-interest (my job), but also a variety of organizational interests (my agency, party, ethnic or racial group, friends). In every little patronage decision, all of these interests take precedence over the public interest. And yet patronage is also the most commonly practiced, and accepted, of all municipal conflicts of interest. Nowhere has patronage been practiced and accepted more than in Chicago.

HONOLULU, HI

Honolulu Government

Originally governed by a Board of Supervisors, the City & County of Honolulu is administered under a mayor-council system of governance overseeing all municipal services: civil defense, emergency medical, fire, parks and recreation, police, sanitation, streets, water, among others. One of the largest municipal governments in the United States, the City & County of Honolulu has an annual operating budget of $1 Billion.

OAKLAND, CA

Wikipedia Page: Oakland, CA

Public Ethics Commission

The City of Oakland Public Ethics Commission was established in November, 1996.

The mission of the Public Ethics Commission is to promote the highest confidence in the ethics of the government of the City of Oakland. We help ensure that government works the way it's supposed to -- that its people are treated fairly, with honesty and integrity. We do this by:

SEATTLE

The Official City of Seattle web site

Seattle Ethics & Elections Commission

One of the missions of The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission is to administer, interpret and enforce the Seattle Code of Ethics, Seattle Municipal Code Chapter 4.16 (SMC 4.16). The Code provides a standard of conduct for all City officers and employees, which includes all elected and appointed officials, all City employees, and members of boards and commissions, paid and unpaid.