City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

April 1, 2008

HUD Secretary Seems to Have Developed Urban Ethics Problems

Not all municipal ethics problems arise from a municipality. One place where there is a great deal of opportunity for municipal misconduct is the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C. (HUD) HUD oversees and funds housing authorities across the country. It gets involved, directly and indirectly, in land and development deals and contracts. As with so many other agencies, the people who run HUD come from the same world as the people they oversee and fund.

Ethics Commissions & Administration March 29, 2008

Parties and the Selection of Ethics Board Members

One nearly untouchable aspect of government ethics is the role of parties. This is less a problem in municipalities than at other levels of government, because most municipalities in the U.S. are nonpartisan, although parties still play a role. But many municipalities and, in some states, particularly in the Northeast, all municipalities are still partisan. And most counties are partisan, as well. In many cases, partisanship and local government are hard to separate.

Ethics Codes & Reform March 25, 2008

The Conditions for Ethics Reform

In an upcoming book, The Rule of Law and Development, Michael Trebilcock and Ron Daniels divide developing countries into three groups (according to an article in last week’s Economist): 1. Those where politicians, lawyers, and the public all support legal reform (e.g., Central Europe after the end of communism); 2. Those where politicians support legal reform, but lawyers and the police do not (e.g., Chile); and 3.

Transparency & Disclosure March 24, 2008

A Cure for Transparency Problems: A Model Website and Blog

An essential problem in many local governments is a lack of transparency. When people do not know what is happening, and access to information is very difficult, democracy is undermined in several ways. Reformers have a difficult time showing what is actually happening or preparing for public meetings and public hearings. Newspapers are dependent on what officials say. Ordinary citizens become indifferent or completely turned off when all news is of the he said-she said variety. Where there is little transparency, there is usually a reason to keep things hidden.

Transparency & Disclosure March 23, 2008

[CityEthics] A Citizen Transparency Initiative

Published on CityEthics.org (http://www.cityethics.org) A Cure for Transparency Problems: A Model Website and Blog By Robert Wechsler Created 2008-03-24 10:38 An essential problem in many local governments is a lack of transparency. When people do not know what is happening, and access to information is very difficult, democracy is undermined in several ways. Reformers have a difficult time showing what is actually happening or preparing for public meetings and public hearings. Newspapers are dependent on what officials say.

Conflicts of Interest March 22, 2008

The Privilege of Slicing Into the Body Politic

The following appeared in a recent op-ed column in the Los Angeles Times by a young doctor, SreyRam Kuy. The issue was a health insurer asking doctors to report patient conditions that might be used to cancel health insurance. “Physicians hold a trust to protect the health of our patients. We cannot abdicate this sacred trust. ... That a person would allow me to take a scalpel and slice into his body to extirpate diseases is such an extraordinary act of trust.

Ethics Codes & Reform March 16, 2008

A Reminder About Ethical Reminders

Dan Ariely, an economist at M.I.T., made up a test that is easy to cheat on, in order to see how social situations might affect students’ choices whether to actually cheat or not. As described in his new book, Predictably Irrational, he found that students who had been asked to recall the Ten Commandments did not cheat at all.

Conflicts of Interest March 14, 2008

A Public Interest That Is Personal and Material

There is an assumption held by people involved in government ethics that putting one’s personal interests ahead of the public interest is bad, that a healthy democracy depends on government officials working for the public interest rather than for themselves. But not everyone holds this view.

March 12, 2008

Jefferson County, Alabama - Charitable and Not-So Charitable Giving by Contractors Leads to Disaster

How harmful can it be for a potential contractor to give money to the favored charities of someone who oversees a county’s finances?

March 12, 2008

Louisiana Embraces Reform - At Least at the State Level

Ethics problems in Louisiana have shown up in this blog several times, so it’s heartening to be able to report that Louisiana is now putting into law a series of ethics improvements, some of which apply to local governments. For example, this week Gov.

Subscribe to