City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Conflicts of Interest June 9, 2010

The Cincinnati Situation II - Conflicts and Indirect Benefits

A government official's relationships -- to family, employer, business -- are very important to determining whether conflicts exist. Both the type and the directness of each relationship are also important. Here again are the basic facts of the situation in Cincinnati that I will be using to touch …

June 9, 2010

A Cincinnati Council Member's Situation Touches on a Number of Important Ethics Issues

There is a situation involving a Cincinnati council member that touches on many important government ethics issues, which I will deal with it in multiple blog posts over the next couple of days. In this post, I will set out the basic facts and the issues. The council member works for a development …

Conflicts of Interest June 8, 2010

Political Preferential Treatment and Quid Pro Quos

A capable individual decides to run for city council against an incumbent who has been on the council since long before the mayor got involved in politics (in other words, the incumbent owes nothing to the mayor and is in no way under the mayor's control). The mayor asks a former mayor to try to co…

June 7, 2010

The Office of Congressional Ethics Leaves Its Barn and the Congressional Black Caucus Tries to Rein It In

While I was away on vacation, the new, quasi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) was in the news a lot. Going Outside of Congress First, it did something that made it appear more than the paper tiger I called it a year ago. According to a New York Times editorial last week, when the OC…

Resources & Learning May 29, 2010

Ethics training research example: Sioux Falls, SD

I am conducting a national research study on government ethics programs with a focus on training. This research is being done in connection with the Ethics Center of the University of North Florida. Cities across the U.S. are being studied as to their ethics program structure, training requirements…

Ethics Commissions & Administration May 20, 2010

EC Members Aiding or Supporting Political Candidates

According to an iLind.net blog post this week, the chair of the Honolulu Ethics Commission resigned on April 22. Although his letter of resignation provides no cause for the resignation, the chair apparently said that he had been asked to assist a mayoral candidate's campaign and did not want to vi…

May 19, 2010

A Cook County Ethics Reform Proposal

According to an article in yesterday's Chicago Daily Observer, Cook County commissioner Tony Peraica has proposed a series of improvements to the ethics code. Here's a summary of the proposed amendments, taken from the commissioner's website (there's also a video on the topic): No Cook County emplo…

Ethics Commissions & Administration May 18, 2010

Anti-Government Anger Is Misplaced With Respect to Local Government Ethics Programs

There was a fascinating editorial in the Waterbury (CT) Republican-American yesterday. The editorial turns anti-government anger against the idea of a local government ethics program, and yet it has some valuable things to say about government ethics. Here's an edited version of it: One reason gove…

May 17, 2010

The Irresponsible Handling of One Man's Conflicts in Two School Districts

A week ago, I wrote about the weaknesses of an ethics initiative in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. This week, in neighboring Lackawanna County, the responses to a March 25 state ethics commission decision has shown truly irresponsible handling of one man's conflicts in two school districts. Lakeland…

Local Government Practice May 14, 2010

Partisanship of Local Elections and Government Ethics

Is the partisanship of local government elections a government ethics issue? I think it is, partly. The story that sparked my thoughts about this was one from today's New York Times about Mayor Bloomberg's second attempt to turn New York City elections from partisan to nonpartisan. Pro-nonpartisan …

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