Ethics Codes & Reform March 29, 2007

Life Without an Ethics Code

In Isle La Motte, Vermont, according to a recent article in the Burlington Free Press, the longtime town clerk and treasurer diverted $100,000 of town funds to her own use. Before the town learned of this, its Selectboard (the town's elected executive board) had arranged to allow her to pay back th…
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Resources & Learning March 28, 2007

Rushworth Kidder's Book *Moral Courage*

Rushworth Kidder's 2005 book Moral Courage is something all municipal officials should read. It's not only a good introduction to ethics, but it focuses on the quality that is most important to create and maintain an ethical environment in any organization, and especially in governments. But since …
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Local Government Practice March 28, 2007

Apology Revisited

Early on, I did a blog entry on apology. I even included apology in 107(1) of the Model Ethics Code, as a stated option for officials, so that their municipality does not have to go to the trouble of investigating their actions and holding hearings. Yesterday, I attended a lecture by Nancy Berlinge…
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Transparency & Disclosure March 27, 2007

Government Ethics for Citizens

Personal interest vs. public interest is central to government ethics. We tend to think, however, that it's central to them (officials) not to us (citizens), and that we have nothing to learn from this sort of ethics. Well, we're wrong. Take flu shots, for instance. People get flu shots because the…
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Conflicts of Interest March 25, 2007

The Public-Interested Argument for Recusal

Buried in my blog entry on the Louisiana legislators' attempt to undermine recusal on constitutional grounds is a short discussion of what I refer to as 'the public-interested side' of recusal. I would like to talk a little more about this, because I think the failure to discuss it enough is a seri…
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Conflicts of Interest March 22, 2007

The Class Exception

No, the class exception does not except classy people from ethics codes. It excepts people from recusing themselves when the interests they have that would be affected by an act or decision are similar to a broad class of people. The biggest class is, of course, taxpayers. Municipal officials can v…
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March 20, 2007

Georgia's Aspirational Guidelines

The City Ethics Model Ethics Code includes as an aspirational code the American Society for Professional Administration's (ASPA) Code of Ethics. This is highly unusual, but not unprecedented. One precedent is the Georgia Municipal Association's City of Ethics program, developed in 1999. The Georgia…
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March 20, 2007

Top 10 Ethics Issues for 2006

We have selected what we consider takes the cake for 2006 in terms of Ethics Issues covered by the media... Number Ten ' Iraq Oversight ' An under-reported sleeper with potential After issuing a series of reports critical of the administration, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq R…
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