Ethics Commissions & Administration

One of the big stories in government ethics this week involves an attempt in Tennessee to consolidate the state ethics and campaign finance commissions, which on its face sounds like a good way to save money during these tough times. But when politicians deal with ethics laws and bodies, things are…

Yesterday, the Rhode Island Supreme Court held oral arguments on the appeal of the RI legislative immunity decision. I want to focus on two important issues that arose in the oral arguments, according to an article in the Providence Journal. But first I want to share with you a photo from the Journ…

See Update Below The accusations made by New York's Inspector General that the executive director of New York's Commission on Public Integrity leaked information about an investigation to a close associate of the target of the investigation (the governor) are very upsetting. But there are two impor…

If the governmental ethics community had a publicity program, the headline of a front-page article in Tuesday's Kansas City Star would be a call to arms: Legislators agree: Ethics laws are puppies, not pit bulls The gist of the article is that, in Missouri and Kansas, the state ethics commissions a…

One thing that keeps striking me about the recent decisions in the legislative immunity cases relating to government ethics is how little they attempt to distinguish cases outside the ethics field from these cases in the ethics field. Is government ethics no different from criminal prosecution, no …

How often should ethics commissions meet? The usual answer to that question is, As often as they need to. But how often is that? That depends on their responsibilities. If all they do is respond to complaints and requests for advisory opinions, then they need only meet when they receive one or the …

Requiring supermajority votes by ethics commissions to find probable cause or a violation is probably the best obstacle elected officials can place in the way of effective ethics enforcement. This is especially true of the probable cause phase, if there is one. Take the typical five-member town or …

According to an article in the Tulsa World, last week the city's Ethics Advisory Committee (EAC) ruled in favor of one of its members, Michael Slankard, with respect to an advisory opinion request by the city attorney. This situation raises several interesting issues. Background Information First, …

I recently wrote about the problem of having a toothless ethics commission in a Connecticut city. According to an article in yesterday's Danbury News-Times, it's good that another Connecticut municipality's ethics commission is toothless. But the story has less to do with teeth than it has to do wi…

It's refreshing when an elected official attacks government ethics head-on. This is what Tennessee state representative Willie "Butch" Borchert did in an impromptu speech yesterday, according to an Associated Press report. He wants to do away with the state ethics commission altogether, arguing tha…