City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Transparency & Disclosure September 16, 2010

Ethical Officials and Disclosure Rules

The Supreme Court has been nibbling away at campaign finance laws for years now, but the one thing all but one of the justices agree on is that requiring the disclosure of contributions does not infringe on first amendment speech rights. Then why, as stated in the Washington Post yesterday, have or…

September 15, 2010

A Miscellany

Targeting Ethics Reform In May, I wrote a blog post about ethics reforms proposed by a Cook County (IL) commissioner. I felt they didn't have much chance of passing. Lo and behold, according to an article in the Chicago Tribune this week, these reforms passed the Board's finance committee unanimous…

Ethics Commissions & Administration September 15, 2010

Who Makes the Best Ethics Commission Member?

Who is the best sort of individual to select as an ethics commission member? Some people believe it's a member of the clergy, because who else is more ethical? And there are many clergy members on ethics commissions across the country. But this shows either a misunderstanding of government ethics …

Enforcement & Complaints September 14, 2010

Opposition to Independent Ethics Enforcement in Washington Will Echo Locally

Forget the fascinating range of ethics programs at the local level. It is congressional ethics programs that get the national attention. And with all this attention, what Congress does, and fails to do, has a great effect not only on what happens at the local level, but also on the rhetoric employe…

Conflicts of Interest September 13, 2010

The Ethics of Municipal Pension Plans Revisited

Four years after I wrote a blog post entitled The Ethics of Today's Municipal Pension Plan Problems, according to an op-ed piece in the New York Times, New Jersey agreed with the S.E.C. never again to fraudulently hide its underfunding of the state’s public pension system. And the Republican candid…

September 11, 2010

Problems with Santa Fe County's Aspirational, Yet Enforceable Draft Code of Conduct

What is most remarkable about the proposed code of conduct for Santa Fe County (NM) is the fact that it was drafted by the county attorney. It reads as if it were put together by a citizens group in a community that has lost faith in its government officials. The proposed code starts with a declara…

September 9, 2010

An Ethics Pledge That's Too Much and Too Little

In May, I wrote a critical assessment of the Luzerne County (PA) Ethics Pledge. From an article last week in the Citizens Voice, I learned that an Exeter council member who had missed numerous council meetings and filed a suit against the borough had actually appeared at a council meeting where he …

September 8, 2010

Jacksonville's Charter Review Commission

The Jacksonville City Council's Sub-Committee on the Charter Review Commission's (which only meets every 10 years) findings met yesterday 07-09-2010 to hear public testimony on any aspects of the CRC's findings. There were about 20 people who spoke, and all but one were there to encourage the commi…

Conflicts of Interest September 8, 2010

Using Local Government Employees for Private Purposes

Using government employees for private purposes is one of the most common ethics code violations. This violation is especially bad because it involves coercion of individuals, in this case subordinates who are not in a position to say no. Coercion and intimidation rarely occur outside of a poor eth…

Conflicts of Interest September 7, 2010

Is a Council Member Who Runs a Local Charity Giving Back to the Community?

The lead article in yesterday's New York Times was on charities set up by members of congress. I've written a few times about the use of charities to get around campaign finance and gift provisions (1 2 3), but this is an area of special creativity, where new ideas, and new reasons for regulation, …

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