Ethics Reform

Quick. What's the biggest government ethics problem?

Did you say deducting union membership dues from government paychecks? If you didn't, you are clearly not an Republican Alabama state senator.

When you think of double-dipping, do you think of a mayor also acting as a state representative, or someone holding a government job while getting a government pension? If you do, you are clearly not an Republican Alabama official. They appear more concerned about teachers holding elected office, a problem that keeps us up late at night.

More election-related news. Here are two arguments against an amendment to the Utah constitution that, if approved by voters on November 2, would establish a partially independent legislative ethics commission. The arguments are made in an official ballot issue publication of the state of Utah.

In May, I wrote a critical assessment of the Luzerne County (PA) Ethics Pledge.

The Missouri Ethics Commission has put up a nice slideshow-with-audio presentation on the many changes made to its ethics and campaign finance laws in Senate Bill 844 (it used Adobe Presenter software, but there are likely other alternatives). It's a good way to do reform-specific training.

A new way to obtain ethics reform is making some headway in New York State. A number of former bigwigs, including former governor Mario Cuomo, and former NYC mayors Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani, have created an organization called New York Uprising and a three-part pledge, one of which calls for a new state ethics commission and financial disclosure requirements (the other two involve redistricting and budget-making).

There are many ways to get ethics reform going (the Lone Ranger being out of fashion outside of New York State), but the choices are different in different states, and it's hard to know which one is best or most practicable for a particular community.

Can they convict him simply for failing to disclose information when he had no duty to disclose? No Alaska law required it, and there's no federal statute that requires it, so what did he do wrong?

Most local governments leave open meeting and public records matters to the state. But often the slowness and expense of the state enforcement process, as well as weaknesses in state law (e.g., too short a period for noticing agendas, vague guidelines on filling FOI requests), can mean that open meeting and public records laws are insufficiently effective or are ignored.

There are a lot of stupid reasons for opposing ethics reform initiatives, but an organization in Utah has pulled a Plaxico Burress with the stupidest of all.

The organization, Gun Owners of Utah, opposes Utah's ethics reform initiative because "it contains a de-facto gun registration clause."

Update: November 13, 2009 (see below)