City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

October 3, 2009

A Miscellany

When Is a Confidentiality Waiver Not a Confidentiality Waiver?
It is common for ethics codes to allow respondents in ethics proceedings to waive confidentiality and make the proceeding public. This is what South Carolina governor Mark Sanford did, according to an article in The State back in August.

Resources & Learning October 2, 2009

How Views on Government Can Affect Views on Local Government Ethics

Reading Garry Wills' A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government (1999) made me think about how anti- and pro-government feelings jive with views on government ethics.

October 1, 2009

The Next Stage in the Baltimore Legislative Immunity Case

The next round of memoranda have been filed by the parties to the Dixon case, where the Baltimore mayor (though the case relates to her activities as council president) is raising a defense of legislative immunity in a criminal proceeding for perjury (relating to failure to disclose) to keep out evidence that she knew that a developer who gave her many gifts was involved in a development with the city.

Conflicts of Interest October 1, 2009

Procuring Trouble

When I heard about the ACORN sting, when two people posing as pimp and prostitute asked for help in getting a loan to open a brothel, I thought: what would happen if a local government official and a prostitute visited a local government attorney to ask for help in giving the prostitute a contract, so that the local government, rather than the official, could pay for her services?

One big difference is that it is not legal to open a brothel, but it might be legal to use your office to get a local government to give a contract to a prostitute.

September 30, 2009

An Ethics Reform Petition Moves Forward in Utah

It's official. According to an article in yesterday's Salt Lake City Tribune, a comprehensive ethics reform petition has been okayed for distribution, with the goal of placing it on the November 2010 ballot. That requires 95,000 signatures on a 21-page petition that is far from easy reading.

September 30, 2009

Maricopa County 5 - Practicing What You Enforce Is Only Fair

A week ago I wrote a blog post about preferential treatment, emphasizing that the way to distinguish preferential treatment from ordinary decisions and transactions, where someone is commonly preferred over others, is by whether the treatment is fair and whether the regular process is followed.

Ethics Commissions & Administration September 29, 2009

Maricopa County 4 - Local Government Attorney Prosecutions of Those They Represent

One of the more interesting battles in the civil war among Maricopa County elected officials is the Battle of the Civil Division. When the county attorney indicted County Supervisor Don Stapley in December 2008, the board of supervisors decided to take away the county attorney's civil division and create a separate county civil law department.

The Conflict of Representing and Prosecuting Officials

Transparency & Disclosure September 29, 2009

Maricopa County 3 - Disclosing Properties Owned by a Corporation

A central dispute in the first group of charges brought against Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley involved whether he was required to disclose properties held by a company he owned, as long as he listed the company among his assets. Stapley felt this was not required.

September 27, 2009

Maricopa County 2 - Perjury Charges as Ethics Enforcement, and Officials' Trust in the Public

Both times Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley has had criminal charges brought against him, the counts included perjury charges for omissions on disclosure forms (2008 charges, 2009 charges). Is this the best or even an appropriate way to handle such omissions?

September 26, 2009

Maricopa County 1 - Local Government Association Officer-Campaign Contributions

Update: 9/30/09
I was asked to do a short interview on Phoenix's NPR station KJZZ yesterday, to provide a government ethics view on issues relating to the latest battle in the uncivil war among elected officials in Maricopa County, the county that includes Phoenix. My research into what is going on raised all sorts of interesting issues. I'll deal with them in multiple blog posts.

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