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April 18, 2009

Congress Teaches Civics Course in Ethics Self-Regulation

Government officials should, I think, focus more on what their actions teach Americans. In effect, each of them is teaching an ongoing civics course. For many years, Congress have been giving us a course on how self-regulation in the ethics sphere simply doesn't work. According to an editorial in t…
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Enforcement & Complaints April 17, 2009

Legislative Immunity Goes Local: The Defense Was Just Used in an Ethics Matter in Baltimore

It had to happen soon:  a legislative immunity defense has been used in a local government ethics matter, albeit in a city where violations are criminally prosecuted. I happened upon it in my research on my last blog entry, about the Baltimore mayor's defenses of her taking gifts from a city develo…
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Transparency & Disclosure April 17, 2009

Disclosure of Gifts -- Really Just from Companies?

Update below: The controversy in Baltimore over the mayor's acceptance of gifts from a developer whose companies have received a great deal of funding from the city appears now to be focused on whether or not the mayor was required to disclose these gifts, since the developer did not personally do …
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Local Government Practice April 17, 2009

The Effect of a State's Ethics Environment on Local Governments' Ethics Environments

One of the principal reasons I have focused my energies on local government ethics is that most people learn their government ethics at the local level. What they see people doing on councils and zoning boards, they do on state legislatures and commissions, and then again at the federal level. But …
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Ethics Commissions & Administration April 16, 2009

Politicians on an Ethics Commission, EC Self-Regulation, and Other Interesting Issues That Arise from One Matter in Tulsa

According to an article in the Tulsa World, last week the city's Ethics Advisory Committee (EAC) ruled in favor of one of its members, Michael Slankard, with respect to an advisory opinion request by the city attorney. This situation raises several interesting issues. Background Information First, …
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Ethics Codes & Reform April 15, 2009

Georgia Attempts to Require Local Ethics Enforcement

Last month, the Georgia Senate unanimously passed a bill requiring every local governing body (including school boards) to create an ethics panel to hear complaints regarding at least members of the local governing body and, in counties, elected constitutional officers. Each panel would have the po…
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Transparency & Disclosure April 15, 2009

Disclosure of the Names of Those Whose Benefit Creates a Conflict of Interest

The word is out:  if local government officials don't want to file financial disclosure statements, all they have to do is resign en masse and whoever wrote the ethics code will not only rewrite it, but will say all sorts of warm, wonderful things about them. This is the conclusion that comes from …
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play April 14, 2009

Good People Arguing for Pay-to-Play in a Charities Context

Broward County (FL), home of Ft. Lauderdale, is working on ethics reform, something Ft. Lauderdale itself did in 2007. Today, according to a piece on the Sun-Sentinel Broward Politics website, a county commissioner will be introducing a bill to prevent county commissioners from soliciting contribut…
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April 13, 2009

Nevada Legislative Immunity Appeal: A Sigh of Relief Regarding Institutional Waiver, and a Legislator's Neverneverland

The Nevada legislative immunity appellate briefs have been filed, and they are worth reading for those interested in the intersection between government ethics enforcement and legislative immunity, an intersection where, in the last year, there have been a few collisions harmful to the cause of gov…
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Conflicts of Interest April 11, 2009

The Value of Jurisdiction Over Contractors in Projects Paid For with Local Government Funds

An important issue in local government ethics is how far jurisdiction should go. Recently, I did a blog entry on jurisdiction over those doing government-approved work. An article in today's New York Times raises another important jurisdictional question:  should a local government have ethics juri…
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