City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Ethics Codes & Reform February 27, 2013

Bridging the Gulf Between Administrative and Government Ethics

I have done a poor job in this blog covering administrative ethics, that is, the field of study involving the professional conduct of public administrators. Writers on administrative ethics have done a poor job of covering government ethics, that is, the field of study involving conflicts of interest. Although the two fields overlap, they exist in mostly separate worlds. For example, rarely does an administrative ethics professor show up at a Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) conference, and my work (among others') has been totally ignored by administrative ethics professors.

February 25, 2013

A New, But Very Weak Regional Ethics Program in Connecticut

[Note: I have made changes throughout this blog post, based on a February 25 e-mail message from the COG executive director]

It should feel good when a pet idea of yours becomes a reality. My pet idea is the regional ethics program, whose biggest successes have been of the countywide variety, such as Miami-Dade County and Palm Beach County, FL (there is also a Broward County program, but it is run by an inspector general). There are a few regional ethics commissions in Kentucky, and one in Northwest Indiana, but they don't really have ethics programs.

February 23, 2013

A Contentious Conflict Situation in Kansas City, KS

Some very interesting issues arise out of a past (and present) conflict situation that has become an issue in this week's mayoral primary in the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, KS ("UG").

Ethics Commissions & Administration February 22, 2013

Post-EC Obligations

Does a former ethics commission member have a special obligation not to make misstatements with respect to government ethics matters? This question arose from a 2010 case in Florida I just came across, where the state senate president hired a former chair of the state ethics commission as his attorney.

Conflicts of Interest February 22, 2013

Why Revolving Doors Have Governors

According to an article in yesterday's New York Times, U.S. Senate majority leader Harry Reid's spokesman said with respect to questions regarding his hiring of a tax adviser away from General Electric, "The impulse in some quarters to reflexively cast suspicion on private sector experience is part of what makes qualified individuals reluctant to enter public service."

February 20, 2013

Winter Reading: Switch VII - Self-Evaluation and Identity

Self-Evaluation and Getting One's Bearings

February 19, 2013

Winter Reading: Switch VI - Mindsets, Free Space, Humor, and Failure

You Can't Teach Ethics

February 18, 2013

Winter Reading: Switch V - Simplifying and Motivating

Simplifying Self-Supervision
In their book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (Crown, 2010), Chip and Dan Heath note that self-control or, more accurately, self-supervision is an exhaustible resource. What looks like laziness or selfishness is often simply exhaustion. Self-supervision gets burned up by managing the impression we make on others, by coping with fears, and by trying to focus on complex instructions.

February 14, 2013

Winter Reading: Switch IV - Ethics Reform

Why Scandals Lead to Poor Ethics Reform

February 13, 2013

Winter Reading: Switch III - Goals and Destinations

A Destination for Government Ethics Training
Most cities and counties treat ethics training as a one-off phenomenon. Toss a hundred people in a room, give them a lecture about how to be good, and that's it for at least a year or two. One of the case studies in Chip and Dan Heath's book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (Crown, 2010) offers a different vision of ethics training.

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