City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Conflicts of Interest March 25, 2014

Volunteering Professional Services: An In-Kind Contribution or Not?

Can anyone volunteer for a local political campaign without it being considered a contribution? Isn't it everyone's right to do so? Isn't this just about the most important thing a citizen can do, short of running for office herself? According to the Toronto Metro News website last week, a "politic…

March 24, 2014

An Aussie Editorial on Insider Lobbyists

Worth reading is an op-ed piece Saturday in the Canberra Times by Jack Waterford, the paper's editor-at-large. With a title you'd never see in an American paper — Weaning Players Off the Public Teat — Waterford takes a very frank approach to the revolving door between government and lobbying. Water…

Resources & Learning March 21, 2014

Winter Reading: Robert Dahl's "Who Governs?"

I just finished reading the classic political science book Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City by Robert A. Dahl (Yale University Press, 1961). It might have been the second time around, because I did take an Urban Politics course forty years ago. The book happens to focus on New H…

Local Government Practice March 20, 2014

Misuse of Consent Agendas

Consent agendas, also known as consent calendars, are an excellent way to get around the disclosure of conflicts (and, as Dallas showed us in 2011, to amend ethics provisions without a discussion (see my blog post on this)). A consent agenda is a way to deal, in a single motion and a single vote, w…

Conflicts of Interest March 19, 2014

Misuse of Government Website Bios for Business Purposes

While researching my last blog post, I visited the webpage of Tallahassee mayor John Marks, and was thrown for a bit of a loop. The first two paragraphs of his bio look more like an advertisement for his law firm than the bio of a mayor: John Marks, Mayor of the City of Tallahassee, practices law w…

March 19, 2014

A Misguided Attempt to Provide More Due Process in FL

The story of state legislative interference with local government ethics programs in Florida continues with a newly amended bill in the state senate (SB 1474 is attached; see below), sponsored by senator Joe Abruzzo, whose antagonism to the Palm Beach County ethics program has been the subject of t…

March 17, 2014

D.C. Mayor Is Burned by a Contractor's Participation in His Election

While I was on vacation last week, the biggest story in local government ethics appears to have been, once again, in the District of Columbia. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and the charges brought by the U.S. Attorney (attached; see below), the CEO…

Conflicts of Interest March 6, 2014

When the Reason for Withdrawal Appears to Be False

What should be done when an official withdraws from participation in a matter and gives a reason for withdrawal that appears to be false? Why would an official provide a false reason for withdrawal? There are at least two possible reasons: (1) the real conflict situation would look worse than the …

Ethics Commissions & Administration March 6, 2014

Government Lawyers: Function or Membership?

"Why hire a lawyer to do an internal investigation? It’s because you get the privileges. Otherwise, you’d save a little money and hire a consultant or accountant." These are the wise words of Bruce A. Green, Director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham Law School, as quoted in t…

March 5, 2014

The Good and Bad of Palm Beach County's EC Selection Process

The independent selection of EC members is a great thing for making a government ethics program appear independent of those under its jurisdiction and for ensuring that an ethics commission remains fully stocked with members. But how this selection process is actually accomplished matters, too. The…

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