City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Resources & Learning August 21, 2012

Summer Reading: Corruption and American Politics - Michael Johnston's Essay

Corruption and American Politics, an essay collection edited by Michael A. Genovese and Victoria A. Farrar-Myers (Cambria, 2011), has some excellent essays, especially those that deal with institutional corruption. The only serious criticism I have of the book is its price: $30 in both paperback an…

Ethics Commissions & Administration August 21, 2012

Law vs. Function, and Oversight

An interesting issue has arisen in Louisiana. It involves an important distinction in government ethics, between law and function. According to an AP article this weekend, the Louisiana Board of Ethics found that a state board of education member may keep both this position and her job as executive…

August 20, 2012

Very Problematic Fort Worth Ethics Reform Proposals

In a long cover story in last week's Fort Worth Weekly, Peter Gorman looked at the state of government ethics in Fort Worth and, most important, some proposed changes to its ethics program that take it in the wrong direction. Since it was the only article on the proposals, and Gorman paraphrased me…

August 16, 2012

County Election Boards Scandal in Columbus

Update: August 18, 2012 (see below) There is a longstanding pattern of scandals in the cities that the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) chooses for its annual meeting. COGEL was in Chicago when Rod Blagojevich was arrested, and in New Orleans when Rep. Jefferson was re-elected despite th…

Enforcement & Complaints August 15, 2012

The Problems with Requiring a Sworn Ethics Complaint Based on Personally Known Facts

Is it important that an ethics complaint be based on information that is known personally? Some ethics codes require this. But the fact is that many ethics violations are done secretly. It can take some serious, professional investigation to obtain the facts and relevant documents. This is why inve…

August 14, 2012

First Round of Chicago Ethics Reforms

(Note: This post has been revised, based on a response from Steve Berlin, executive director of Chicago's ethics board. I had made the silly assumption that the underlined language in the ethics reform ordinance was new. It turns out that much of that language has been there for some time. So I've …

Conflicts of Interest August 13, 2012

Mayors and Post-Employment Restrictions

When it comes to post-employment restrictions, a mayor should not be considered as just a member of the legislative or executive branch, no matter what the form of government (strong mayor or mayor-council). A mayor has a special status that sets her apart from other local officials. Post-employmen…

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play August 10, 2012

Influence vs. Pay to Play

A big controversy surrounding the race for mayor of Honolulu is focused on the state's pay-to-play culture of the past, and what pay to play actually is. The reason for this is that a former Hawaii governor is running for mayor, and he is being supported by Bob Watada, a former state Campaign Spend…

August 9, 2012

A Miscellany

Ethics Code Amendment Without a Scandal Sometimes conflict situations, when they are handled responsibly, lead to changes in an ethics code. This happened recently in Prince William County, Virginia, according to an article on the insidenova.com website. A county supervisor wanted to give $100,000 …

Ethics Commissions & Administration August 8, 2012

Problems with an IG Approach to Local Government Ethics

I believe that an ethics commission/ethics officer approach to local government ethics is far better than an inspector general approach. The simultaneous creation of an EC/EO approach in Palm Beach County, FL and an IG approach in neighboring Broward County provides a small laboratory for seeing wh…

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