City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play January 26, 2009

Personal Fundraising by Elected Officials

Here's a more interesting story out of Massachusetts, this one from the state Senate. Former state senator Dianne Wilkerson admits having accepted up to $70,000 from friends and supporters in what is being called personal fundraising, that is, raising money to pay off personal debts. She says that …

January 26, 2009

Massachusetts House Speaker To Resign

Massachusetts House Speaker Sal DiMasi will be resigning his house seat tomorrow, according to an article in today's Boston Globe. DiMasi is currently being investigated by the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, and he has raised a defense of legislative immunity against its request for documents. He…

Enforcement & Complaints January 24, 2009

NY Senator Bruno's Indictment Shows Us Once Again That Ethics Self-Enforcement Doesn't Work

Former New York State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno has been indicted by a federal grand jury, but his biggest crime was not taking millions of dollars in so-called consulting fees. His biggest crime was standing in the way of any meaningful ethics reform in New York State. Here's what Susan Ler…

January 24, 2009

How to Unsettle a Settlement Agreement

What happens if an ethics commission enters into a settlement agreement in which an official admits to certain conduct in violation of the jurisdiction's ethics code, and then the official goes out into the world and says he did nothing wrong, but felt it was best for everyone to pay the fine and m…

January 22, 2009

Obama's First-Day Executive Orders on Ethics and Transparency. Mayors Take Note.

It's an excellent way to start an administration, with two executive orders on government ethics and transparency. It sends an important message to governments at all levels that even in the midst of economic crisis and war, ethics is a number one priority. One executive order, Ethics Commitments b…

January 21, 2009

Updates re Rhode Island and Oregon - Legislative Immunity and Annual Disclosure

Rhode Island - Legislative Immunity According to yesterday's Providence Journal, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from the court decision supporting the former state senate president's claim of legislative immunity against the Rhode Island Ethics Commission, which equally…

January 20, 2009

City Attorney Investigates Memphis Mayor for Possible Ethics Violation

As I wrote in a blog entry nearly two years ago, Memphis has broken records in terms of convicted public officials. But its mayor of seventeen years, Willie Herenton, has stood above it all. At least until now. One result of the many convictions in Memphis was a new ethics ordinance in 2007 (not di…

January 20, 2009

A Criminal Failure

I hate to harp so often on the problem of ethics matters being handled by criminal authorities, but when I read an article in the Nogales (AZ) International that begins as follows, I get angry. While there was “ample evidence of incompetence,” it took more than two years for Nils Urman, former Sant…

January 18, 2009

Hostile Takeovers in the Municipal World

When I wrote about the "industrial city" of Vernon, California a year ago, I didn't pay attention to a story that would, if it were true (allegations have been made but, as far as I know, not proven), make for a great movie, at least as dramatic as Chinatown, about municipal corruption in Southern …

January 16, 2009

Council Accounts - Conflicts and a Lack of Transparency

A year ago, I wrote about New York City Council's earmark funds and the ways they were being abused. Atlanta's council members have a different sort of fund, not intended to help their constituents, but intended to help themselves. They too are open to abuse and, according to an article in yesterda…

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