City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Conflicts of Interest January 10, 2014

A Miscellany

It's Not the Dead Bodies, It's the Living Ones "He knows where the bodies are buried at Metro." According to a local mayor as quoted in an article yesterday in the Surrey North Delta Leader, this is an important qualification for someone going from Metro Vancouver (BC) treasurer to lobbyist for the…

Ethics Commissions & Administration January 9, 2014

Apparent Misuse of Government Ethics Authority to Win a Vote

In a New York Times column today, Michael Powell has unearthed an ugly-looking government ethics situation in New Jersey involving apparent misuse of government ethics authority to win a vote. The fact situation is fairly typical. What is not typical is the way it has been handled. A gas company is…

Conflicts of Interest January 8, 2014

Two Complex Conflict Situations in Montpelier, VT

According to a recent Reader Supported News article, ethics allegations have been made in Montpelier regarding two high-level officials. Both allegations are worthy of a closer look. According to the article, the mayor of Montpelier, the state capital, is a lawyer with a firm that represents two ma…

Enforcement & Complaints January 7, 2014

Ethics Racketeering?

When the criminal justice system finds that government officials are involved in a conspiracy to pursue illegal conduct in an environment of fear and intimidation, they bring racketeering charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). This is what happened with the Atl…

Local Government Practice January 6, 2014

How Lobbying Is Changing

There is lobbying, and then there is lobbying. One of the most difficult things about regulating lobbying is defining what it means to lobby. And according to an op-ed piece last week in the New York Times by journalism professor Thomas D. Edsall, it is getting harder to define lobbying. Those who …

Enforcement & Complaints January 6, 2014

A Good Ethics Settlement in Ohio

Here is the story of a good settlement reached in an Ohio ethics proceeding involving a council member from a very small city. According to a recent article in the Canton Rep, the council member voted on an addendum to the lease of a golf course despite the fact that he lived on adjoining property.…

Local Government Practice January 3, 2014

Problems with the Perfectly Ordinary

According to an article yesterday in the Seguin (TX) Gazette, there will be a perfectly ordinary local government ethics occurrence next Monday in Seguin, a town of 25,000 outside San Antonio: the city's ethics commission will meet in closed session to discuss a recently filed ethics complaint. The…

Ethics Commissions & Administration January 2, 2014

Arguments Against Having City or County Attorney as Ethics Officer

The role of the city or county attorney in an ethics program continues to be a major bone of contention, despite the fact that government ethics professionals generally take the position that the city or county attorney should not be involved in an ethics program. The latest locale for this dispute…

Enforcement & Complaints January 1, 2014

A Miscellany

The Boss of the Ethics Director's Bosses According to an article this week in the Free Times, an FOI lawsuit was filed against South Carolina's ethics commission, because its director had said that a letter informing the governor of an ethics violation had not been sent and had been destroyed, when…

Conflicts of Interest December 31, 2013

Ethics Waivers by a Legislative Body

I am a proponent of ethics waivers. But only if they are provided by an independent ethics commission. When they are provided by high-level officials or their appointees, they appear to be self-serving. Why self-serving? Because they create precedents that will enable those who make the precedents …

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