City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

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 new ethics board solely for council members, and consisting of two council members, the city attorney, and two citizens of their choice.

Ethics Commissions & Administration July 20, 2010

Problems Involving Campaign Contributions by EC Members

I hate to see people resign with statements such as this, as typical as they are:

While I have been assured that I have violated no existing code, ordinance or statute, I cannot permit my integrity — and, by insinuation, Councilwoman Hermann’s — to be attacked. Sadly, these are the words of a former Kansas City (MO) ethics commission member, according to an article in the Kansas City Star.

Conflicts of Interest July 19, 2010

Being Too Careful About Conflicts

It's important to be careful when it comes to conflicts of interest, but it's also important not to be too careful. When you're too careful, you send the wrong message to members of the community and you miseducate them about government ethics.

Ethics Codes & Reform July 18, 2010

Ways to Achieve Ethics Reform

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.

Enforcement & Complaints July 17, 2010

The Political Use of Ethics Complaints, and the Manipulation of the Press

There's a good opinion piece by Austin American-Statesman columnist Jason Embry this week on the political use of ethics complaints. The instances of abuse of the ethics process is what has led many jurisdictions to prohibit any mention of filing an ethics complaint and to prohibit the filing of ethics complaints within sixty or so days of an election.

Conflicts of Interest July 16, 2010

The Need to Anticipate Perceptions When Dealing with Nepotism Issues

Here's an interesting modern spin on an old-fashioned nepotism/conflict of interest matter. According to an article in Tuesday's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the husband of a member of a charter school's board was hired to teach at the charter school, and there is disagreement over whether there is a conflict or not.

Conflicts of Interest July 15, 2010

Not Dealing Responsibly with Conflicts Can Lead to Litigation and Overturning of Board Action

A failure to deal responsibly with one's conflicts of interest has ramifications beyond the loss of public trust, and all the serious problems that arise from this loss. This failure can also lead to litigation and the overturning of actions by local government officials.

July 14, 2010

A Miscellany of Poor Approaches

A Poor Approach to Being Ethical
It's great when candidates talk up acting ethically. But it's going too far, and setting a bad precedent, when a candidate takes a lie-detector test in which he says that he never engaged in unethical activities in private- or public-sector work, as reported in the Moultrie (GA) Observer.

Ethics Commissions & Administration July 13, 2010

A Crippling Case of Ethics Self-Enforcement

I recently wrote a blog post about a false statements in elections law in Ohio, and the problems with enforcing such laws. I have often written about the problems with self-enforcement of ethics laws. In the Wisconsin case of a state supreme court justice's misrepresentations in an election ad, the two have come together, big-time. The result is far more injurious, even crippling, to public trust in the judiciary than the original misrepresentations.

Ethics Codes & Reform July 12, 2010

Inquiry Judge Says That Ethical Obligations Go Beyond Ethics Law Provisions

There's an interesting issue at the heart of a judicial inquiry into possible misconduct by the mayor of Mississauga, Ontario. The council sought the inquiry to “investigate any supposed breach of trust or other misconduct of a Member of Council, an employee of the municipality or person having a contract with the municipality” and to inquire into “any matter connected with the good government of the municipality or the conduct of any part of its public business." In short, it is an open-ended inquiry into multiple matters relating to two deals in which the mayor was involved.

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