City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Enforcement & Complaints May 10, 2008

Political Use of Ethics Enforcement

Ethics complaints are often brought for purely political reasons, and election time is the favorite time for bringing them.

According to an article in yesterday's Flint Journal, a Thetford Township Supervisor brought an ethics complaint before his own board against a township Trustee who is planning to run for his seat this year. The complaint raises a reasonable problem involving a property tax exemption, but it is clearly not a violation of the township's ethics code.

Transparency & Disclosure May 9, 2008

Legal Advice and Government Accountability

Elizabeth Wolgast’s 1992 book, Ethics of an Artificial Person: Lost Responsibility in Professions and Organizations, raises some very important government ethics questions. I will deal with just one of them here. The term “artificial persons” includes lawyers and government officials who are considered to act in the name of others. Wolgast’s book looks at the problems such artificial persons cause with respect to our ordinary views of such ethical issues as responsibility and accountability. Too often, Wolgast says, lawyers and government officials hide behind their roles.

May 8, 2008

Tilting at Wind Farms in Northern New York State

Ethics in a small town can be very problematic when one large company with special property interests comes into town. Whether it is a developer, a landfill owner, or other sort of business that seeks to get property or expand its holdings at an inexpensive price, its needs often lead it to tempt individual local government officials or dominate the town's politics. In Franklin County (northeastern New York State), a new sort of business has been causing local governments ethics problems: wind farm companies.

May 5, 2008

Favoring Friends - The Massachusetts Approach

Everyone knows it’s not right for government officials to favor their friends, but because friendships are so difficult to define, they don’t appear in ethics codes. Relatives can be defined, domestic partners can be defined, business associates can be defined, but not boyfriends or pals or old buddies. This is one of the limitations of dealing with ethics in the form of a law. But the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, which deals with local government as well as state government officials, has found a way to deal with favoritism given to friends.

Ethics Commissions & Administration April 30, 2008

The Confidentiality of Ethics Proceedings and the Duties This Creates

Confidentiality is a sticky issue in ethics investigations. It appears to be the norm, but many people do not seem to understand why it exists, or what duties it creates. An interesting confidentiality issue arose recently in Beaufort, South Carolina, according to an article in today’s Beaufort Gazette. A former mayoral candidate filed a complaint against the current mayor with the state Ethics Commission.

Conflicts of Interest April 29, 2008

The Conflicts of Slush Funds

Back to New York City, where more information is coming out about the special “slush” funds given out to city council members. According to an article in yesterday’s New York Times and an editorial in today’s, one member has, in recent years, given more than $400,000 in city funds to a nonprofit agency, run by some of his closest aides, which does almost nothing but hand money on to other organizations, and yet somehow is i

April 28, 2008

Lincoln, Nebraska Raises Interesting Questions Regarding City Contracts with City Officials

What’s been happening recently in Lincoln, Nebraska, concerning city officials having contracts with the city, provides food for thought on a few basic conflicts of interest issues. One issue is whether city officials and employees should be allowed to have contracts with the city. Or are full and open bidding provisions enough?

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play April 25, 2008

Paying Relatives to Work on Council Campaigns - Issues of Trust

Once again, the New York Times has an article today that touches on municipal ethics issues. A municipal scandal does wonders. This time the issue is campaigns hiring relatives of city council candidates. It happens all the time, and it’s not illegal (in New York City and most of the country), but as Susan Lerner, the executive director of New York Common Cause, is quoted as saying, “It’s the type of thing which makes ordinary voters suspicious of the motives of candidates.

Conflicts of Interest April 22, 2008

"Constituent Services" Can Be Another Term for Quid Pro Quo

Today’s New York Times has an article that focuses on John McCain’s dealings with a big Arizona developer, Donald Diamond. There are two issues here that I would like to bring up. First, the ultimate defense, which McCain’s campaign employs: helping a constituent. McCain “had done nothing for Mr. Diamond that he would not do for any other Arizona citizen.” Diamond is not any other constituent. He traveled with McCain during the early primaries in 2000, and is on the campaign trail again this year.

Ethics Codes & Reform April 20, 2008

The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Approach to Ethics

In a long and very important article in today’s New York Times about the conflicts of interest of so-called television and radio network military analysts, one analyst says that the network he works for asked few questions about analysts’ outside business interests, the nature of their work, or the potential of that work to create conflicts of interest. “The worst conflict of interest was no interest,” he said. Hiring military analysts who work for military contractors and whose writing is vet

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