The Real versus The Ideal
Officials and lawyers tend to act as if they were Platonists. That
is, they talk about conflicts of interest as if they existed in a
ideal form, divorced from reality.
January 19, 2013
New Orleans Mayor's Indictment Shows Weakness of the City's Ethics Program
The FBI had to work hard for years to get a grand jury indictment of
former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin yesterday (a searchable PDF of
the indictment is attached; see below).
Ethics Commissions & Administration
January 18, 2013
How ECs Can Preserve Their Full Allotment of Members
I learned this week that the board I administered until last July,
the New Haven Democracy Fund board (the Fund is a public campaign
financing program for the city's mayoral election), no longer has
enough members to hold an official meeting. The seven-member board
has three members, and it needs four members to have a quorum.
Ethics Commissions & Administration
January 17, 2013
An Ethics Officer Worth Emulating
It's rare to find a newspaper article that truly appreciates the work a city ethics officer does. So I'm including the entire article below. It's from the Jacksonville Times-Union, and Jacksonville's ethics officer happens to be City Ethics President Carla Miller. Had it been anyone else, I would have run the article right away.
Ethics Commissions & Administration
January 16, 2013
Council Approval to Bring a Matter to a County Ethics Commission
Here's an odd ethics program rule. According to an
article last week in the Advocate-Messenger, the Boyle County,
KY ethics commission, which has jurisdiction over all the
municipalities in the county, requires that a town council vote on
whether a matter may be referred to the ethics commission.
Ethics Commissions & Administration
January 15, 2013
Ethics Program Jurisdiction Over Boards of Education
One government ethics question that does not have a general answer
is whether boards of education or school systems are under the
jurisdiction of city or county ethics programs. The answer is
sometimes, but generally not.
There are several reasons for this. One is that many, probably most school systems have different boundaries than cities and counties. Generally, these are regional, including all or parts of multiple cities, towns, and counties.
There are several reasons for this. One is that many, probably most school systems have different boundaries than cities and counties. Generally, these are regional, including all or parts of multiple cities, towns, and counties.
January 14, 2013
Ethics Reform Testimony in D.C. and Tallahassee
It would be really helpful if people could find recommendations for
ethics reform all in one place, but this rarely happens. Ethics task
forces and ethics commissions that ask for such recommendations from
good government groups, officials, and academics rarely make them
available to the public online. Collections of such recommendations
would be a useful resource both for those interested in government
ethics in the particular city or county, and for those elsewhere who
are considering ethics reform and looking for good ideas.
Ethics Codes & Reform
January 11, 2013
Ethics Code ≠ Ethics Program
It can never be said too often that the quality of a government ethics
code is meaningless. What matters is how the ethics
program actually works.
Take Bridgeport, CT for example. It is the largest city in Connecticut, with a population of 150,000. It is a poor city in a rich county, and it has had a history of corruption, including the mayor's conviction on federal corruption charges a decade ago.
Take Bridgeport, CT for example. It is the largest city in Connecticut, with a population of 150,000. It is a poor city in a rich county, and it has had a history of corruption, including the mayor's conviction on federal corruption charges a decade ago.
Enforcement & Complaints
January 10, 2013
Restorative Justice in Government Ethics
Government ethics proceedings are usually not very satisfying for
those involved. Individuals rarely get to tell the entire story from
their point of view. Nor do they profit from hearing how others saw the situation or experienced the events. The format for ethics proceedings is
similar to the criminal justice system, with charges, a prosecution,
witnesses, documents, and the ethics commission as jury. Or a
settlement is reached, the equivalent of a plea bargain, and no
story is told at all.
Resources & Learning
January 8, 2013
Albert Hirschman's Exit, Voice, and Loyalty
In memory of Albert O.Hirschman, an important economist and political scientist who died last month, I want to apply some of the ideas from his most famous book, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (1970), to local government ethics (back in 2009, I pulled out a few thought-provoking passages from his 1983 book,