City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Conflicts of Interest August 3, 2011

The Potential Conflicts of Georgia's Community Improvement Districts

In Georgia, Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) are a creation of state government (they're in the amended 1984 state constitution) that involves local governments in serious potential conflicts of interest, in order to allow developers to fund their public infrastructure with tax-free bonds. CIDs are a clever idea, but cleverness is often inconsistent with government ethics. Smith, Gambrell & Russell, a law firm, has a good, short overview of CIDs.

Ethics Codes & Reform August 2, 2011

Campaign Ideas for Local Government Ethics Reform

Election time can be a good time for local government ethics. Good government candidates spout all sorts of interesting ideas about ethics independence, budgeting, transparency, and the like, which are rarely heard between elections.

Conflicts of Interest August 1, 2011

The Intoxication of Gifts and Fellowship

A very lengthy article in yesterday's News Journal looks at the history of relations between Delaware legislators and Christopher Tigani, formerly the top executive with Delaware's top liquor distributor. The article provides an instructive look at corporate and personal influence.

July 29, 2011

Lobbyist-Oriented Ethics Reform in Chicago

Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues to make small government ethics improvements in Chicago. Yesterday, according to a city press release, the council passed five ethics reforms, all but one of them involving lobbyists. The principal reform is the creation of a searchable online lobbyist registration and reporting system.

July 28, 2011

An Insufficiently Bid Contract in Essex County, NJ

It's not every day that an article about an insufficiently bid county contract appears on the front page of a major newspaper, but that's what happened today with the New York Times.

Conflicts of Interest July 28, 2011

Threats to Officials' Focus on the Public Interest

It is sometimes hard to see what campaign finance has to do with government ethics, that is, conflicts of interest. Campaign finance involves candidates getting elected, while conflicts of interest have to do with decisions made by elected officials. What they have in common is that both areas are intended to help officials act for the public interest rather than their own.

July 27, 2011

Being Wrong II (Summer Reading)

This is the second of two posts looking at Kathryn Schulz's excellent book, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error (2010), as it applies to local government ethics. This post focuses on how to deal responsibly with one's mistakes, and to the extent possible prevent them.

Dealing Responsibly with Mistakes

July 26, 2011

Being Wrong I (Summer Reading)

Ethics Codes & Reform July 20, 2011

The Big Picture

Monday evening, I learned about the serious consequences that can result from not giving ethics commission members a clear understanding of what government ethics is, and what it is not.

The occasion was the consideration by the Democracy Fund board, which oversees the public campaign financing program in New Haven, of a possible violation of the program's ordinance and regulations.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play July 19, 2011

A Conflict Built into Municipal Campaign Finance Enforcement in Connecticut

Sometimes, conflicts are built right into ethics laws, partly because it is in the political interest of those with conflicts, and partly because they don't even view those laws as ethics laws.

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