City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Conflicts of Interest December 21, 2007

How Much Expertise Is Too Much?

It is natural for a current or former firefighter to be interested in serving on a fire commission, or a current or former teacher in serving on a school board. But is there an ongoing conflict of interest in doing so? The question arose on the Milford, Connecticut school board recently. Three memb…

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play December 21, 2007

Campaign Finance and Favoritism Issues Involving Politicians' Charities

It seems so mean-spirited to talk about the conflicts of interest that arise from politicians’ charitable activities, but the revelations about the Clinton Foundation show, in big numbers, what happens so often, in smaller numbers, across the country. There are limits on how much money one can give…

Ethics Codes & Reform December 18, 2007

Lessons to share from ethics reform in Winter Park

In this article published in the Orlando Sentinel, the "Consultant" referred to was Carla Miller, of CityEthics, in a workshop presented in the spring of 2007. From: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/orl-ethics1707dec17,0,3397755.story Richard Foglesong | Special To The Sentinel (…

Ethics Commissions & Administration December 6, 2007

City staffers get ethics introduction

The Jacksonville Daily Record today published a story covering the first ethics training since the new code revisions were ratified by Council on Tuesday last week. "Miller instructed the Council staff not to get too bogged down in the technicalities of the law, but to adopt an overall ethical mind…

December 4, 2007

Government transparency website...

Found this site today: http://www.governmentdocs.org/ Their Description: www.governmentdocs.org was created to advance the values of open and accountable government. This site gives the public an unprecedented level of access to government documents by allowing users to browse, search, and review h…

Ethics Codes & Reform December 3, 2007

Jacksonville's Recent Ethics Code Revisions

Jacksonville's Ethics Commission recently went through a two year revision process of their City's Ethics Code. The resulting updates were finally ratified by the City Council last Tuesday night. See the Times Union article below... Note that I will get the code revisions up in a separate blog entr…

November 14, 2007

Voter ID Laws

Voter ID laws, which are being pushed by the Bush Administration and by Republicans at the state level, have an effect on municipal elections, as well. They are not only a federal and state problem. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, a leader in the fight for more …

Ethics Commissions & Administration October 5, 2007

We Need a Support Network

I've just finished reading a book called Illicit by Moises Naim, about the trafficking of everything from people and drugs to artworks and counterfeit DVDs . One of the things Naim focuses on is why governments have so much trouble putting a dent into any of these types of trafficking. The principa…

Enforcement & Complaints October 5, 2007

How Not to Deal with Sunshine and Ethics Matters

I also write a blog relating to my town's government. One purpose for starting the blog, and its sister information website (the town's website is so limited, it doesn't even include town ordinances, the town's code of ethics, or the town charter), was to create a model that could be used by people…

Ethics Codes & Reform September 26, 2007

Discussing the Undiscussable

Is there an ethical requirement to discuss matters that are not being discussed? Dan Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence, refers to something he calls the Four Attentional Rules. 'In any group, from the family, to organizations, to entire societies, there are these unstated rules that we …

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