City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

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 which works better.

Conflicts of Interest August 7, 2012

Elected Officials Doing Business Together

Should council members do business with each other or with the mayor? Another way to put this question is, does their doing business together give rise to a conflict of interest?

Local Government Practice August 6, 2012

Abuse of Citizen Ignorance in an Ethics-Related Referendum

Update: August 9, 2012 (see below)

People tend to think that all good government people are alike. The thinking goes that those who favor the improvement of ethics programs also favor such things as term limits, referendums and initiatives, and pension forfeiture by those found to have violated the public's trust. As a matter of fact, I don't favor any of these other good government approaches.

Ethics Commissions & Administration August 6, 2012

Another Reason Not to Let an Ethics Program Become Moribund

Here's an all too common scenario: A local government creates an ethics program after a scandal, and time passes either without another scandal or with a change of administration. The new administration sees the ethics program as unnecessary, and decides not to fund the program and not to replace ethics commission members who resign or whose terms run out. The ethics program remains on the books, but there is no training, advice, disclosure, or enforcement of the ethics code, no active ethics commission, and no budget.

Conflicts of Interest August 2, 2012

The Conflicts of Colorado's Public Trustees

Luis Toro, director of Colorado Watch, wrote an interesting Huffington Post post yesterday about ethics issues relating to Colorado's public trustee system.

Transparency & Disclosure August 2, 2012

Stakeholders and Local Government Transparency

Corporate executives have obligations not only to stockholders, but also to other stakeholders, including customers, creditors, and the greater community. However, government officials, at least from the government ethics point of view, have overwhelming obligations only to members of their immediate community. Is this right?

Enforcement & Complaints August 1, 2012

Misuse of Ethics Enforcement Process

It's always disheartening to see high-level officials misuse an ethics program for the sake of personal revenge or, as the official says in the case I'm looking at here, to get "my name cleared."

August 1, 2012

Maryland Local Ethics Requirements

It's a good idea for states to encourage the creation of local government ethics programs by drafting model ethics codes. It's also a good idea for states to require minimal local government ethics provisions. What is not good is model codes and minimal requirements that are not accompanied by explanations and do not provide alternatives and recommendations for improvements. Such codes and requirements can, among other things, provide support for officials who prefer a poor, limited, ineffective ethics program to a good, comprehensive, effective one.

July 28, 2012

A Miscellany

A Complex School Board Conflict Situation

Enforcement & Complaints July 27, 2012

When a Respondent Seeks to Meet with a Complainant

An interesting question arose in an ethics proceeding in Kennesaw, GA, a city of 30,000 just outside of Atlanta. According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a Kennesaw Watch blog post, both dated July 17, soon after an ethics complaint was filed against the city's mayor, the mayor sent two text messages to the complainant, asking for a meeting “man to man face to face."

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