City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Enforcement & Complaints August 6, 2008

Settlement Agreements

Most local government ethics codes do not explicitly deal with settlement agreements, but most state ethics codes do. I left settlement agreements out of my first draft of the City Ethics Model Code, but I have just added a provision, Section 213(5). The language is based on that of several state e…

August 5, 2008

State Party Chair Tells Local Officials That Anything Goes

There are many ways for elected officials to undermine democracy, but trying to scare people away from registering to vote is among the most insidious. This is what Jeffrey M. Frederick, member of the Virginia House of Delegates (legislature) and chair of the Virginia Republican Party (RPV), is doi…

July 29, 2008

The Ethics Show Must Go On

Money may be the root of all evil, but it's a nice way to spice up ethics training. Take the Ethics Rock! program, designed for lawyers who have lots of money to spend on CLE credits. Ethics case studies are done to the tunes of such songs as "American Pie" and "A Day in the Life." The songs are pe…

July 26, 2008

Wanted: Old Toothless Pals Only - The New Office of Congressional Ethics

The actual and perceived independence of an ethics commission is one of the most important aspects of a government ethics program. The U.S. House of Representatives finally decided to be overseen by an independent Office of Congressional Ethics. Hallelujah! And so who did the House appoint? The thr…

Conflicts of Interest July 25, 2008

The Spitzer Report and the Need for Clearer Boundaries Between Public and Private Work

The New York State Commission on Public Integrity released a report yesterday on the allegations relating to the Spitzer Administration's attempts to gather and make public the travel abuses of the Senate Majority Leader, in order to tarnish his reputation. See the New York Times article. There are…

Conflicts of Interest July 23, 2008

An Upside-Down Conflict of Interest

According to a recent article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the chair of one of the city's economic development commissions made an unusual deal with, and a half-million-dollar instant profit from (the purchase and sale transactions were filed at the same time), the commission three years before …

Local Government Practice July 21, 2008

The Ethics of Naming Public Buildings, Etc. After Serving Officials

In my recent entry about Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, I said nothing about the fact that the university center he was seeking funds for has his name on it. An excellent entry by John Fund placed up on Huffington Post today focuses on this part of the story. Yes, why should anything, especially …

Local Government Practice July 21, 2008

Local Government Dependency on Drug Asset Forfeiture in Texas

The drug war is not really about drugs, it's about addiction. And dependency is what powers addiction. As it turns out, dependency is also what powers the drug war, at least in Texas. Local government agencies, and often local governments themselves, are dependent on the money that comes from asset…

Conflicts of Interest July 20, 2008

Trusting Public Boards of Trustees in San Diego County

You know you're in trouble when a grand jury foreman says about you, "They need an independent organization to be an oversight ..., not just the grand jury doing it once every few years." Of course, the "they" here are local government agencies: five community college districts in San Diego County…

July 19, 2008

Rep. Charles Rangel and How to Be Above the Past, Appearances of Impropriety, and Annoying Things Like That

Talk about the appearance of impropriety is, as Congressman Charles B. Rangel of New York is quoted in a recent New York Times article as saying, “annoying.” Why should there be anything more than a decision of his peerless peers on the House Ethics Committee, guilty or not guilty? Appearances of p…

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