City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Conflicts of Interest April 7, 2014

We Can Learn Something About "Ingratiation and Access" from Journalists

The subject of Margaret Sullivan's Public Editor column in yesterday's New York Times is the corrupting influence of journalists getting too close to their sources. In other words, in the language of C.J. Roberts, "ingratiation and access." With respect to local government ethics, the subject would…

April 3, 2014

The McCutcheon Decision and Local Government Ethics

The big news in the government ethics world this week is C.J. Roberts' opinion in the McCutcheon case. The biggest problem with this opinion is its author's continuation of an unrealistic picture of how large campaign contributions work. Roberts acts as if access were not an important goal, and as …

Resources & Learning April 2, 2014

Spring Reading: The Government Ethics Adviser As Civics Teacher

"'Public Service Must Begin at Home': The Lawyer as Civics Teacher in Everyday Practice" by Bruce A. Green and Russell G. Pearce (William & Mary Law Review, Vol. 50, p. 1207, 2009) provides an excellent basis for something that I consider extremely important to government ethics, but with which man…

Conflicts of Interest April 1, 2014

Is Motive Relevant to Lobbying?

Rarely is a non-politician celebrity the subject of a local government ethics matter. So with David Beckham the subject of a Miami-Dade County ethics commission investigative report last week, and with important issues to boot [pun intended], this is an impossible matter to pass by. Initiating Cont…

March 29, 2014

More on Florida's Ethics Reform Bills

In a blog post ten days ago, I predicted that Florida state senator Joe Abruzzo, the sponsor of SB 1474, would realize that the newly amended bill would not do what he really wanted and make the appropriate changes, so that the amended SB 1474 would be consistent with HB 1315. And so he did. He has…

March 28, 2014

Why Hilary Krieger Is Wrong About City Machines

Update: April 3, 2014 (see below) Every so often, someone comes along and says, What's so bad about government officials' ethical misconduct? Isn't it worth having ethical misconduct if it means an effective government? This time it's Hilary Krieger, a Washington Post editor, who recently made the …

March 27, 2014

County Attorney Defends Anti-Transparency Rule in Ethics Program

In most cities and counties throughout the United States, the city or county attorney is in charge of the government ethics program. I have written a great deal about why this is not a best practice, but city and county attorneys still keep providing further reasons. Here's one from Tioga County, N…

March 27, 2014

Mayor of City with Self-Regulating Ethics Program Arrested for Bribery

Another mayor has resigned after getting caught by an FBI sting. According to an article in yesterday's Charlotte Observer, Charlotte's mayor, Patrick Cannon, has been alleged to have accepted bribes from undercover agents in return for promises to help them. His alleged crimes occurred when he was…

Transparency & Disclosure March 26, 2014

The Need to Disclose a Grantee's Name, and a Problem with Public-Private Development Partnerships

Here's another story involving the lack of transparency. This time, the lack of transparency involves a company getting government grants. According to an article from a week ago on floridaytoday.com, Brevard County, FL's commissioners approved a $205,000 grant for Project Magellan, a business deve…

March 26, 2014

Government Ethics Is Grandly Unified in Texas

According to Wikipedia, a Grand Unified Theory (GUT) is "a model in particle physics in which at high energy, the three gauge interactions of the Standard Model which define the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions, are merged into one single interaction." It appears that the case of Mich…

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