Conflicts of Interest August 1, 2013

The Language of "Influence"

"[Standard & Poor's's ratings have always been] uninfluenced by conflicts of interest." —Spokesperson for S&P, in response to a government lawsuit saying that S&P's ratings have been influenced by their conflicts of interest. Quoted in today's New York Times The problem here is the language of "inf…
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Local Government Practice July 28, 2013

A New Local Government Ethics Term

Kudos to the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for inventing a new local government ethics term in an editorial yesterday. The term is "dyscronia." Unfortunately, although referring to it as a "learning disability," the editorial board chose not to define it. So I will. Since the term …
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July 13, 2013

How to Untwist a Straightforward Post-Employment Violation

It is a pleasant surprise to find an intelligent conversation about local government ethics in an article and the comments to it. The latest example of this occurred yesterday in the New Haven (CT) Independent, an online newspaper. The conflict situation involves two instances of lobbying before th…
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July 11, 2013

Summer Reading: Beyond Culture

Edward T. Hall's classic book, Beyond Culture (Anchor Books, 1976), is not a government ethics book. But a lot of the wisdom in this brilliant book can be applied to our field. It's hard to describe this book. It is an examination of certain aspects of culture and of how difficult it is to go from …
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July 10, 2013

Problems Arising from a Bribery Case in Jefferson Parish, LA

Several interesting issues arise from a recent ethics case in Jefferson Parish, a suburb of New Orleans with about 430,000 people. According to an article in the Advocate yesterday, an employee of a large parish contractor sent the following e-mail to a council member's aide, who forwarded it to th…
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