'A farce in these days,' Gov. Alfred E.
Miscellaneous Provisions
This is the place to comment on the Model Code's miscellaneous provisions, and to suggest different language as well as additional provisions.
Ethics Codes & Reform
November 27, 2006
Declaration of Policy, Purpose, and Obligations
This is the place to comment on, discuss, and share alternative content and language relating to the declarations of policy that can usually be found at the beginnning of municipal ethics codes. Most declarations are very short and often ignored, since they cannot be enforced. But they are important in showing the community why ethical conduct is more important than just being good and fair.
Ethics Codes & Reform
November 27, 2006
Introduction
Below is Robert Wechsler's introduction to the Model Municipal Ethics Code. This is the place to comment on issues raised and positions taken in this introdcution.
Introduction
Since most cities already have an ethics code, why is there a need for a model code? Because, as Mark Davies has so effectively argued, a poor ethics code, one that seems to be something it is not, is worse than no ethics code at all.
Ethics Codes & Reform
November 27, 2006
Municipal Ethics Codes: General Discussion of Their Importance, Types, and Their Role in a Municipal Ethics Program
City Ethics' Model Code Project assumes that an ethics code is central to municipal ethics programs.
But this raises several issues. How important is an ethics code to an ethics program? Can an effective ethical environment be created without any sort of written ethics code?
November 22, 2006
Tolerance of Intellectual Dishonesty
In the November 5 issue of the New York Times Book Review, Michael Kinsley wrote, "The biggest flaw in our democracy is ... the enormous tolerance for intellectual dishonesty. Politicians are held to account for outright lies, but there seems to be no sanction against saying things you obviously don't believe. ...
November 21, 2006
Developers and Ethics Reform
On November 15, 2006, David Damron of the Orlando Sentinel reported on Lawson Lamar, the local state attorney's call for "sweeping new ethics laws he said would limit the influence of developers and other special interests on city and county governments. In a Nov.
November 21, 2006
Libel and the Media's Role in Ethics Oversight
Open Letter to Illinois Chief Justice Robert R. Thomas:
The news media are probably the most important single element in providing oversight in government ethics matters. And the most effective way to keep the news media from doing their job is to file a libel suit.
The New York Times ran an excellent article yesterday by Katharine Q. Seelye, which focused on a libel suit you brought against a small-town newspaper. Apparently, the paper accused you of having traded a vote for a political favor.
September 27, 2006
NY Courts - Part 2: How a Reviled Court System Has Outlasted Critics
September 27, 2006
Broken Bench
How a Reviled Court System Has Outlasted Critics
September 6, 2006
The Ethics of Today's Municipal Pension Plan Problems
The New York Times has been running a series of articles about municipal pension funds (by Mary Williams Walsh, Michael Cooper, and Danny Hakim, August 20, 22, 27, September 1, 4, 2006). The articles focus on two principal problems: (1) pensions have been increased, largely in order to get short-term cuts in negotiations with unions, and (2) calculations to determine the health of pension plans usually have little relationship to reality. Each problem is essentially an ethical problem.
First of all, both problems involve transparency.
Conflicts of Interest
August 11, 2006
Contracting: A Growing Ethics Problem in the Age of Privatization
Contracting is one of the municipal ethics issues that is most often overlooked as an ethics issue. One reason is that the laws governing competitive bidding are often at the state level. Another is that municipal competitive bidding laws often appear outside codes of ethics (often because they are state mandated).