City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Conflicts of Interest August 19, 2013

Do Gifts Establish Subordination?

Five years ago, I wrote a blog post about gifts and reciprocity, based on a classic anthropological work, Lewis Hyde's The Gift. An op-ed piece in Friday's Washington Post by another anthropologist, Hugh Gusterson, extends this look at gifts by considering two kinds of gift: those between equals a…

Local Government Practice August 9, 2013

Local Government Ethics Programs 2.0 [2nd Edition]

The second edition of this comprehensive book about local government ethics programs. And it's free! See more details here: Local Government Ethics Programs 2.0,

Ethics Commissions & Administration August 9, 2013

Designated Ethics Aides

The idea of a designated driver was a great idea (thank you, Scandinavia). The idea of the designated hitter was a lousy idea (yes, I'm a National Leaguer). How about a designated ethics aide? A staff member assigned by a local legislator, or department or agency head, to be her point person on con…

Ethics Commissions & Administration August 8, 2013

How to Handle Misrepresentations of Ethics Advice

It is very damaging when a government official misrepresents ethics advice he has been given. What should an ethics officer or commission do when this happens? In many cases, such advice, especially when it is provided informally, is confidential. When an official makes a public statement about suc…

Ethics Codes & Reform August 7, 2013

It's Gray Between the Cracks

Gifts to a local official can fall between jurisdictional cracks, as shown in an article today in the New York Times. They can also fall between definitional cracks. And between these cracks it's gray. The article reports that, a couple of years ago, Newark NJ's mayor, Cory Booker, who is running f…

Enforcement & Complaints August 7, 2013

Jursdiction, Nepotism, Retaliation, and Independence

Yesterday, Oregon's Statesman Journal reported an interesting case that involves a number of important government ethics issues. The state's Department of Corrections (DOC) deputy director allegedly used his position to influence an Oregon Corrections Enterprises (OCE) administrator into hiring his…

Ethics Commissions & Administration August 6, 2013

EC vs. IG: A Battle It's Better Not to Have

Once again, the failure to work out in advance the relationship between an ethics commission and an inspector general's office has led to the locking of horns in the midst of an ethics proceeding. This time the location of the turf war is the District of Columbia. I've recommended that ethics commi…

August 5, 2013

A City Land Sale That Requires a Broader Investigation

Here's an interesting case study from Hartford, CT. The facts come from an NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters post from Friday and a report of the city's Chief Auditor dated June 27, 2013. In October 2011, the city sold a piece of property to one of the city's merchants associations for $1. That day, …

Local Government Practice August 4, 2013

Loyalty, Fairness, and Whistleblowing

An op-ed piece in the New York Times Sunday Review today looks at whistleblowing from the perspective of whether people lean toward fairness or loyalty (those who lean to fairness are more likely to blow the whistle on misconduct). This is, of course, a simplistic approach, but valuable nevertheles…

August 2, 2013

A New State Integrity Index Report

Two weeks ago, the Better Government Association-Alper Services Integrity Index was published, the first since 2008. It grades each state's conflicts of interest, freedom of information, open meetings, and whistleblower-protection laws. As far as it goes, this is an excellent report. It sets forth …

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