Conflicts of Interest

Back to New York City, where more information is coming out about the special “slush” funds given out to city council members. According to an article in yesterday’s New York Times and an editorial in today’s, one member has, in recent years, given more than $400,000 in city funds to a nonprofit agency, run by some of his closest aides, which does almost nothing but hand money on to other organizations, and yet somehow is i

Today’s New York Times has an article that focuses on John McCain’s dealings with a big Arizona developer, Donald Diamond. There are two issues here that I would like to bring up. First, the ultimate defense, which McCain’s campaign employs: helping a constituent. McCain “had done nothing for Mr. Diamond that he would not do for any other Arizona citizen.” Diamond is not any other constituent. He traveled with McCain during the early primaries in 2000, and is on the campaign trail again this year.

Earmarks are usually dealt with as a spending and democracy problem. All that money being thrown away on projects no one actually votes to fund. But earmarks are also a conflict of interest issue, as can be seen in what has come out regarding the New York City Council. I recently wrote about the transparency aspect of the Council’s hidden earmarks.

Many municipal codes of ethics, including the City Ethics Model Code (Section 100(15)), contain a provision prohibiting the acceptance of fees and honoraria for articles, appearances, or speeches. Today’s New York Times Science section contains an article about research scientists starting to refuse fees and honoraria.