Conflicts of Interest

I don't usually turn over an entire blog post to someone else, although I would like very much to do it. This letter to the editor by Kevin Haggerty, the Lackawanna County (PA) deputy director of government and community affairs (and candidate for state representative), which appeared in the Times …

According to an article in the Metro West Daily News on Friday, the Ashland (MA) board of selectmen sent two reported allegations of possible acts of ethical misconduct to the state ethics commission. The request sought not enforcement, but clarification. I hope by "clarification" the board meant t…

Here are three interesting conflict of interest case studies from Tuesday's news. Conflicts That Make You Act Differently, and Imaginative Resolutions According to an article in the Los Angeles Daily Breeze, a former Los Angeles airport attorney, who reviewed the paperwork submitted by four compani…

It's nice to be able to write about a difficult conflict situation that is handled responsibly. It's unusual to be able to write about a resolution where the local newspaper ends its editorial saying that the right thing has been done. According to an article posted last night on delawareonline.com…

Local party committees have a great deal of power. Most of the people we vote for have been selected and, where allowed by law, endorsed by local party committees. Most of the people who are appointed to boards and commmissions have also been approved by local party committees. In most places, they…

According to an article in Friday's San Bernardino Sun, a San Bernardino city council member accused of a conflict of interest resigned. He owned a towing company whose major source of income is a contract with the city. The contract was made before he joined the council. According to an article Sa…

Last month, I wrote about how the Green Bay ethics board hadn't met much more than the Packers had won Super Bowls. Well, now that the Packers have won another, it's time for the ethics board to meet again (the last time it met was in 1999). One thing Green Bay and Pittsburgh officials have in comm…

According to an article in The Record this week, a Clifton, New Jersey council member is being accused of dealing irresponsibly with a conflict by participating in a discussion about, although not voting on, the reappointment of two members of the city's zoning board. The conflict is an unusual one…

The U.S. is not the only country with a revolving-door problem. In Japan, the problem is deeply institutionalized. It is as much a part of the retirement system as pensions. But the Japanese name for the revolving door shows that not only does the system work in a different manner than ours, but th…

According to an op-ed piece by a county commissioner from Collier County, Florida (in the Naples Daily News), two interesting twists on the gift to an official's favorite charity gambit occurred recently. Gifts to officials' favorite charities are a common way to get around pay-to-play laws. Here i…