City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Ethics Commissions & Administration May 24, 2012

The Gap Between Advice and Enforcement, and The Isolation of Independence

I was on a panel this week as part of the annual Citywide Seminar on Ethics in New York City Government, co-sponsored by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) and the Center for New York City Law at the New York Law School. The panel was called "Challenges & Solutions in Government E…

Conflicts of Interest May 23, 2012

An Official's Relationship with a Bidder

Here's an interesting conflict situation from San Mateo County, CA. According to an article in yesterday's Almanac, prosecutors are investigating the selection by two school boards of a project architect for construction projects at the same time that the project architect was remodeling the house …

Ethics Commissions & Administration May 21, 2012

EC Transparency Should Be a High Priority

My most recent blog post involved ethics commission confidentiality. This one involves the other side of the coin: ethics commission transparency. I often send blog posts to officials I write about, hoping that they will enter into dialogue about the issue, privately or online, or at least learn s…

Enforcement & Complaints May 18, 2012

Using Confidentiality as a Smokescreen

It's Attack the Ethics Commission week once again, this time in New York State. According to an April 16 article in the Albany Times-Union, a mayor from one party filed a complaint against the deputy majority leader of the New York Senate, who is a member of the other party. The complaint is includ…

Conflicts of Interest May 17, 2012

Gifts from Organizations That Are Not Restricted Sources, But . . .

I want to revisit a situation I mentioned a few days ago in a post about ethics reform. Common Cause Rhode Island was recommending a reform to deal with the situation where gifts are made to officials by an organization that is not an "interested party" (and therefore not subject to the gift ban) b…

May 16, 2012

D.C. Legislative Immunity Decision Ignores Constitutional-Legislative Differences

Last September, I wrote a blog post about the attempt by District of Columbia council members to block a subpoena by employing a legislative immunity defense. The case involves retaliation against a whistleblower who had alleged improper council input in the awarding of a lottery contract. On Monda…

Local Government Practice May 15, 2012

Professional Proselytizing As Political Activity

Here's an interesting political activity situation out of La Crosse County, Wisconsin. According to an article in the La Crosse Tribune last week, the county administrator was involved in supporting a referendum to give the city of La Crosse its own administrator. A city or county manager is not su…

Local Government Practice May 14, 2012

Willful Ignorance by Government Attorneys

Over the weekend, I read a March 2010 draft of Rebecca Roiphe's law review article "The Ethics of Willful Ignorance," which appeared in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Volume 24, Issue 1 (Winter 2011). Willful (or deliberate) ignorance (or blindness) describes what happens when someone has …

Conflicts of Interest May 11, 2012

Misusing the Opportunities Given By One's Government Position

Imagine that you're a county supervisor with a $92,000 salary and, despite the salary, you're allowed to hold an outside job (because the county supervisors before you gave you, and themselves, this opportunity). With a sizeable salary, there would appear to be no reason to work in any field that w…

Ethics Codes & Reform May 9, 2012

How Not To Accomplish Ethics Reform

Here are three instances of ethics reform that, I hope, would not happen if someone involved had read the chapter on ethics reform in my Local Government Ethics Program book. Copying a Local Town's Code According to an article in yesterday's Houston Chronicle, the town of Pearland, TX did ethics re…

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