City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Ethics Commissions & Administration October 8, 2012

The Limits of an EC's Jurisdiction: A Situation in San Francisco

Update: October 10, 2012 (see below) So far, I have ignored this year's most famous local ethics proceeding, against San Francisco sheriff Ross Mirkarimi. The reason I ignored it is the reason I am writing about it now: I think the proceeding should have been dismissed because the sheriff's miscon…

Conflicts of Interest October 6, 2012

Fire, Smoke, and Snowballs

It's valuable to put government ethics in the larger context of the use of public office for private purposes that does not involve a financial benefit for anyone. In other words, much of politics is personal. A review in this weekend's New York Times Book Review got me thinking about this. The boo…

Conflicts of Interest October 5, 2012

Putting Government Officials and Employees into Conflict Situations

It was very refreshing to hear Ann Arbor council member Steven Kunselman, in an interview with Jeanine DeLay of A2Ethics, an Ann Arbor-based ethics organization, talking openly, honestly, and intelligently about some local government ethics situations. The two situations he spoke about are situatio…

October 3, 2012

Chicago's Mayor Replaces Entire Ethics Board

When a mayor replaces an entire ethics commission, it usually means that he is taking over control of the city's ethics program, to protect himself and his allies. This doesn't appear to be the case in Chicago, where today Mayor Emmanuel replaced ethics board members whose terms had ended or were a…

October 3, 2012

Legislative Involvement in Administration: Problems in Broward County, FL

One of the most important ways of preventing ethical misconduct usually does not appear in an ethics code, because it does not involve a traditional conflict of interest. I am referring to non-legislative roles played by local legislators, especially roles that enable them to create a pay-to-play e…

October 1, 2012

Bid Rigging, Organized Crime, and State Takeover of Cities

According to an article in last week's Economist, last year 22 local councils in Italy were disbanded and taken over by the national government due to alleged infiltration by organized crime. This is an extreme way to deal with a poor local government ethics environment. But it's a very difficult p…

Conflicts of Interest September 28, 2012

Questioning the Assumption of An Official's Sole Responsibility for Ethics Violations

It is assumed in government ethics enforcement that an official who mishandles a conflict situation is solely responsible for her misconduct. This assumption is rarely questioned. The official might have received no training, or poor training. The official might not have been encouraged to seek adv…

September 28, 2012

San Antonio Officials Mishandle the Mishandling of a Conflict Situation

According to an article in the San Antonio Express-News this week, San Antonio's deputy city manager is concerned about whether he mishandled a conflict situation. It involved his participation on a bid review committee for a $300 million contract for an expansion to the city's convention center. W…

Conflicts of Interest September 27, 2012

Assessors and Government Ethics

According to an investigative article on Nashville's WTVF-TV site yesterday evening, a former property assessor had help from a developer in disposing of her home and buying one from the developer, and also undervalued nine of the developer's properties by a total of $9.5 million over three years. …

Local Government Practice September 26, 2012

The Purposes Behind Revolving Door Provisions

An interesting case in Iowa raises questions about the purposes behind post-employment, or "revolving door," provisions, including whom they are supposed to protect and why. According to an Associated Press article yesterday, a former chief of staff and general counsel to Iowa's then governor is re…

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