City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Resources & Learning April 5, 2007

Logical Fallacies III - The Straw Man Wears Camouflage

When an official makes an Ad Hominem attack, everyone realizes there is an attack. And when an official makes an Ad Populum defense, everyone realizes that there is a defense. But when an official sets up a Straw Man, the situation isn't so clear. It's not an attack or a defense, but a response to an argument.

Resources & Learning April 4, 2007

Terry Cooper's The Responsible Administrator - Thinking Ethically

There is so much valuable material in Terry L. Cooper's book The Responsible Administrator: An Approach to Ethics for the Administrative Role (1998) that it's difficult to sum up in a review. So instead I will look at some of its most important points in a few separate blog entries. Responsibility is the key to municipal ethics as well as administration.

Conflicts of Interest April 2, 2007

No Conflict in Voting for Oneself

In an earlier blog entry, I took the side of the Louisiana Board of Ethics in its dispute with the state legislature over whether it has jurisdiction over legislators who participate in debate when they have a conflict of interest. In another case, which the Board of Ethics lost on appeal, I feel the Board of Ethics was wrong, and I feel it is instructive to say why. The matter involved two parish council members who voted for themselves for mayor pro-tem.

Ethics Codes & Reform April 2, 2007

Publicizing Ethics Reform

It is not enough to reform a city's ethics program. One must also let the world know about it. Most municipalities reform their ethics in a vacuum. They might look at a nearby town or city, or two, but the people in charge rarely know what is happening elsewhere, what are the norms and what are the latest reforms.

Local Government Practice March 31, 2007

Trust in the Face of Disaster

With apologies to Louisiana, since this week I've already focused on its legislators' dispute with its Board of Ethics, I'm going to return to the state to discuss a situation where local government ethics can make a great difference. On the front page of today's New York Times, an article looks at reasons why so little money has made it from Washington to local government infrastructure projects in Louisiana (the article ignores Mississippi and Alabama).

Ethics Commissions & Administration March 31, 2007

Elections Commissions

Who should and who should not sit on elections commissions? Other than land-use commissions (and, sadly, ethics commissions), elections commissions are probably the most abused in terms of membership. Take the election commission in Hamblen County, according to the March 7-10, 2007 entries in the noe4accountability blog. It has five members.

March 30, 2007

Albuquerque Ethics Brings Down State and Federal Officials

Those who have been closely following the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys by the Bush Administration may know that one of them involves a U.S. Attorney who did not move fast enough with an investigation into possible kickbacks relating to the building of a county courthouse in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Yesterday, according to an article in the Albuquerque Tribune, a former Albuquerque mayor, and two others, pleaded guilty in connection with this investigation, and the new U.S.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play March 30, 2007

Municipal Campaign Disclosure Laws, Budgets, and Priorities

Laws are highly over-rated. This is one reason why the City Ethics Model Code Project is not just about codes, but the centerpiece of a wide-ranging discussion of all the issues involved in creating, improving, and maintaining local government ethics programs. Laws may be too highly over-rated, but budgets and priorities are too often under-rated. Take Denver. Denver requires political candidates to disclose the employers and occupations of anyone who gives them $200 or more.

Conflicts of Interest March 30, 2007

No Conflict Without Profit? - Exasperating Quote of the Day

A former chancellor of Maricopa Community College in Phoenix, Arizona continued to work for the college on contract, while also having a business on the side that did business with the college on a no-bid basis. The business was set up by the college when he was chancellor and was given to him a few months after he retired. The former chancellor denies any conflict of interest because his business (Sedona Conferences and Conversations, which does business with colleges around the world) is not always profitable. 'If I were really crazy about making money, I wouldn't be doing Sedona.

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 the money along with interest and audit and legal expenses. One member of the Selectboard was the town clerk's father, and another was a close friend of hers.

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