Resources & Learning March 6, 2007

Top Ten Ethics Films

We have been batting this around for a while, and have come up with the following list: The Top Ten BEST ETHICS Movies of all time 1. Man for All Seasons Paul Scofield brilliantly plays Thomas More who stands up for his principals against the ultimate difficult boss, King Henry VIIII. In the end, h…
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Conflicts of Interest March 6, 2007

Proximity Rules

Some towns have proximity rules, that is, rules that require officials to recuse themselves from any matter dealing with property within a certain distance of property they own or rent. But it is hard to have a set number of feet or yards. A distance appropriate to an urban environment is very diff…
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Enforcement & Complaints March 5, 2007

Ethics Recidivism After Getting Off Easy

You don't hear too much about recidivism in the municipal ethics world. One reason may be that it happens, but often at different levels, as a politician moves up the ladder. Take Congressional Representative Gary Miller, for instance. According to a recent article in The Hill, he got his start whe…
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Conflicts of Interest March 4, 2007

Hiding Conflicts Until the Last Second

It is very common for public servants to say (or others to say for them) that they did not feel they had a true conflict or did not understand the law. And often this is true. But why so often do those same people often try to hide the fact that they did not disclose their conflict (or the extent o…
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March 3, 2007

An Occasion for Compassion and Respect

The big story this week from Largo (not Key Largo, but a West Coast town), Florida has a little bit of everything in it. I don't think any ethics code would deal with what occurred, but the situation certainly raises a number of important ethical issues in a municipal government context. The story …
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Transparency & Disclosure February 22, 2007

Ethics Transparency

Transparency is one of the most important elements of government ethics. And yet government ethics itself is often kept secret. Respect for the privacy of those investigated is given preference over the rights of residents to know what is going on. Ethics commissions often do not file annual report…
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Local Government Practice February 16, 2007

A Course in Running for Local Office

One of the best ways to create a more ethical environment in local government is to have more people run for office. The more people who run for office, the more pressure is put on the closed world that many local governments preserve. This closed world is preserved through the lack of interest not…
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