City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Conflicts of Interest July 31, 2010

The Pretzel Logic Required by Limiting Conflicts to Financial Interests. And the Ultimate Defense.

Update: August 2, 2010 (see below) I've long said that conflicts of interest should not be limited to financial interests or, in other terms, situations where a possible financial benefit or loss is involved (see, for example, this 2009 blog post). My position is confirmed by the twisted yet necess…

July 30, 2010

The New, Leaky Utah Legislative Ethics Complaint Process

In a recent blog post, I wrote about a federal third circuit decision that a law prohibiting an ethics complainant from announcing the filing of the complaint violates the complainant's first amendment rights. This decision contradicts a second circuit decision that upheld a law prohibiting the ann…

Transparency & Disclosure July 29, 2010

Lack of Transparency and Voter Indifference Can Make a Big Difference

Update: September 23, 2010 (see below) Lack of transparency and voter indifference, especially relating to technical issues, are often considered minor issues not central to local government ethics. What happened the last few years in Bell, California (pop. 37,000; Los Angeles County) should make p…

Local Government Practice July 28, 2010

The Public's Right to a Public-Interested Representative

Update: January 11, 2011 (see below) According to a July 2 unpublished opinion by Judge Flanagan of the Washoe County (NV) district court, Carrigan v. Commission on Ethics of the State of Nevada (attached; see below), a city council member has a first amendment free speech right to vote where there…

July 27, 2010

A New Proposal for a Pennsylvania Public Integrity Commission with Jurisdiction Over Local Government Officials

Yesterday, four Pennsylvania state representatives, two from each of the major parties, announced a proposal to create a public integrity commission that would have greater powers than the current state ethics commission, and would jurisdiction over officials at all levels of government. According …

July 27, 2010

Some Questionable Missouri Ethics Reform Provisions

According to an article in the News-Tribune, the governor of Missouri recently signed an ethics bill (SB 844) that made many changes in the state's ethics and campaign finance programs, and failed to make others, such as a campaign contribution limit, which the legislature had eliminated in 2006. M…

Enforcement & Complaints July 26, 2010

Ethics Settlements and Admissions of Wrongdoing

“How he is treated is important. He’s going to fight for his name. Rather than accept language he disagrees with, he would rather fight it out. This is his life.” These are the words of an adviser to congressman Charles Rangel about why his month-long settlement negotiations with the House Committe…

Conflicts of Interest July 25, 2010

Creating and Denying Conflicts of Interest in Harlingen, Texas

In researching a recent ethics complaint in Harlingen, Texas (pop. 67,000), I came across some disturbing ethics matters. The most disturbing can be seen from the minutes of the city development corporation's September 29, 2009 meeting (pp. 3-4). Brendan Hall, the former city attorney, wanted to re…

Enforcement & Complaints July 23, 2010

There Is a Meaningful Difference Between Making Accusations and Saying You've Filed an Ethics Complaint

Update: October 22, 2010 (see below) Recently, I wrote a blog post on the political use of ethics complaints and the manipulation of the press. Yesterday, the third circuit court of appeals effectively, and I think wrongly, disagreed with one of my principal arguments in that post, and therefore ca…

July 20, 2010

Fort Wayne Deserves a Far Better Ethics Program

If you're a city of a quarter million people with an ethics board that “has not met in many years and ... is effectively non-existent,” according to a council member who has proposed a new ethics ordinance, what do you do? Not, I think, what the proposed ordinance (p. 16ff) does, which is create a …

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