Ethics Commissions & Administration March 5, 2009

Against the Whole Thing

It's refreshing when an elected official attacks government ethics head-on. This is what Tennessee state representative Willie "Butch" Borchert did in an impromptu speech yesterday, according to an Associated Press report. He wants to do away with the state ethics commission altogether, arguing tha…
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March 5, 2009

Concern About Corruption in Illinois

Politics may be local for politicians, but is it for citizens? The 2009 Joyce Foundation Illinois Survey shows that in January the people of Illinois were more concerned about corruption in government than about the economy. Last January only 49% of those polled were extremely concerned about corru…
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Local Government Practice March 3, 2009

Political Activity on the Job

The ethics provision that is probably most consistently violated is the one about political activity in city or county hall. The City Ethics Model Code Project version reads as follows: An official, employee, or municipal candidate may not knowingly request, or authorize anyone else to request, tha…
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Conflicts of Interest March 1, 2009

Labor Peace Through Unethical Conduct

Rarely does an ethics commission get a clear chance to show it has no favoritism. The Nevada Commission on Ethics will soon get that chance. The Nevada senator who raised a legislative immunity defense last year against the commission was accused of a conflict of interest due to his position as pre…
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February 28, 2009

A Miscellany

On the legislative immunity front, according to an article in the Providence Journal, a date has been set for the Rhode Island Supreme Court to hear the appeal by the Rhode Island Ethics Commission of the decision upholding the old constitutional legislative immunity clause against a more recent co…
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February 27, 2009

Thumbs Up and Down Today

Thumbs up for the Virginia House of Delegates General Laws Committee. According to an editorial in today's Charlottesville Daily Progress, this House committee greatly improved a Senate bill on disclosure of conflicts of interest by local land-use board members. The Senate wanted to make disclosure…
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Resources & Learning February 27, 2009

F. G. Bailey's The Prevalence of Deceit

Another cause for my last blog entry, on the three lies of government ethics, is that I had just finished F. G. Bailey's book The Prevalence of Deceit (Cornell, 1991). The book is about the close connection between deceit and power. Bailey pictures politics as a contest for power that employs rheto…
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Ethics Codes & Reform February 27, 2009

The Three Lies of Government Ethics

Everyone knows the three lies jokes. Every topic has its three lies, and the third one is the punch line. Unfortunately, in government ethics there aren't any punch lines, but there are lies, or at least common rhetoric that isn't true, what I will refer to as "untruths." Those who believe in effec…
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