City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Conflicts of Interest March 15, 2015

Recent CA Advisory Opinions re Proximity to Properties Involved in Land Use Matters

the subsection of my book Local Government Ethics Programs on proximity (in the Indefinite Benefits section), I oppose numbers such as 500 feet. My argument is that "what is important here is not the actual concrete benefit or harm, but rather how the official’s presumed expectation of benefit or h…

Enforcement & Complaints March 8, 2015

Defenses Against Charges of Bribery

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez is to be indicted this week for bribery and failure to report gifts. Where there is an effective government ethics program, he would be easily found to have committed administrative government ethics violations. In a criminal case, the official has the edge (and he has alr…

Transparency & Disclosure March 4, 2015

Private E-Mail Accounts and the Confusion of Person and Office

Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail account is not something that is done only at the federal level. Lots of mayors and council members, as well as other government officials, do public business on private accounts, even if they have a publicly provided cellphone and computer. The principal i…

March 4, 2015

The Administrative-Criminal Enforcement Fiefdom in Ferguson, MO

The word "fiefdom" does not appear in the U.S. Justice Department's March 4 report on Ferguson, MO's police department, but that is what the report describes. What is unusual about the fiefdom is that it is controlled by the council, not by an executive or attorney. It is far from a classic fiefdom…

Enforcement & Complaints March 1, 2015

Ethics Complaints and Commendations

Across the country, requests for citizen complaints provide not only for complaints, but also for commendations. I happened to notice one of these when I was in the nation's capital this weekend, and it got me wondering why this is not done with respect to government ethics complaints and hotline r…

Enforcement & Complaints February 25, 2015

Prosecutorial Interference with a Local Government Ethics Investigation

Yesterday, two members of a New York City council member's election campaign were indicted on criminal charges brought by a special prosecutor, who was appointed in 2012. Read this December 2014 New York Law Journal op-ed piece by Brennan Center (NYU) Chief Counsel and longtime New York City Corpor…

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play February 25, 2015

The Value of a Chicago Referendum on Public Election Financing

Is it, as Every Voice says in its celebratory e-mail last night, an "exciting victory [that] sent a loud and clear mandate to city and state governments to fundamentally reform the way we fund elections so that everyday Americans can take back control of their democracy"? Or is it, as the more cyni…

Resources & Learning February 19, 2015

IC Course Lecture: CORRUPTING INFLUENCES

Lecture by Dr. Bill English Larry Lessig has a concept of Institutional Corruption (IC) as a deviation from the purpose of the organization. This is shown graphically by a compass pointing north--true north is the purpose of the organization; if you get pulled off of true north (like with a magnet…

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play February 12, 2015

Fundraising for a Political Convention: Pay to Play, Transparency, and a Blind Spot

Even the most enthusiastic good government politicians often have a serious blind spot: themselves. They believe that everyone else is into pay to play and selling out to big contributors. But not them. They're only doing what's best for their city. They have only the community's best interests i…

February 4, 2015

A new Sunshine Law suit in Florida...

From the Miami Herald blog: Newspapers, advocates sue the governor and Cabinet for sunshine violation The Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, the Associated Press, a Tampa lawyer and a coalition of sunshine advocates filed a lawsuit late Tuesday alleging that Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet viola…

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