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 set to help guide their decision-making."

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 hundreds of thousands of pages acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other public disclosure, or “sunshine,” laws."

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 entry later.

From: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/113007/opl_221526913.shtml.

The Florida Times-Union

November 30, 2007

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.

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 principal reason is the structure of relationships. Government bureaucracies lose out to increasingly flexible networks of individuals. In the municipal ethics world, the situation is similar, but even worse outside the larger cities.

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 in other towns who are faced with an administration that is closed and acts unethically.

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 learn tacitly about the questions that can't be asked.' Click here to read the rest of this blog entry. The Four Attentional Rules are as follows: 1. Here's what we notice 2. Here's what we call it 3. Here's what can't be noticed 4.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play September 26, 2007

A Campaign Ethics Pledge

Usually an ethics pledge is something required of a town official or something requested by a good government organization.

September 7, 2007

Why Yet Another Big New Jersey Municipal Scandal ?

My first experience with municipal politics in New Jersey, where I lived for nine years before moving to Connecticut, was accompanying some neighbors to a council meeting, because a couple of them wanted to speak about a change in zoning that affected the street we lived on. A neighbor asked the mayor when they could speak, and was told people would be alerted when it came time to speak. The council debated the issue and then, without a pause, started to vote on it. I rose in protest and had to insist, against people saying it was too late, that my neighbors be heard.

Ethics Codes & Reform September 6, 2007

The Ethics Elephant

From Wikipedia. The story of the blind men and an elephant appears to have originated in India, but its original source is debated. It has been attributed to the Jainists, Buddhists, and sometimes to the Sufis or Hindus, and has been used by all those groups. The best-known version attributed to an individual in the modern day is the 19th Century poem by John Godfrey Saxe.

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