City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

May 18, 2011

New Chicago Mayor Emanuel's Ethics-Related Executive Orders

On December 6, according to an article on the Chicago Talks website, Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel promised that he would make many ethics reforms to “change the culture” of corruption and cronyism at City Hall. Emanuel said he would require city employees to wait two years after leaving t…

Conflicts of Interest May 17, 2011

Dating, Marrying, and Gifts

Government ethics is dangerous to dating and weddings. That's the message of an article in Sunday's Palm Beach Post. Because the proposed amendment to the Palm Beach County ethics code's gift provision, just like the current provision (§2-444), does not make an exception for people who are dating, …

Conflicts of Interest May 15, 2011

Nepotism and Withdrawal

In March, I wrote a blog post about a nepotism situation in Valparaiso, IN. The city's ethics commission found that the hiring of the fire chief's son would be in violation of the ethics code, because the chief would be directly involved in personnel matters involving his son. According to an NWI T…

May 13, 2011

School Officials Participate in Sports Equipment Reconditioning Fraud

As a postscript to the Jersey Sting, on Wednesday, according to a Justice Department press release, the former CFO and CEO of a company that reconditioned and sold athletic equipment to schools and universities were indicted on charges of duplicate payment fraud, the submission of fake price quotes…

Resources & Learning May 12, 2011

The Jersey Sting

Two months ago, a book was published called The Jersey Sting, by two Star-Ledger reporters, Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin. It provides the history of an enormous federal sting operation which led to the arrest of dozens of government officials, most of them from local governments, on July 23, 2009 …

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play May 11, 2011

Government Contractor Contributions and What To Do About Them

Last month, the Obama administration drafted an executive order that would require those seeking federal government contracts to disclose their political contributions, and those of their directors, officers, affiliates, and subsidiaries, made in the two years before they bid for a contract. This d…

May 10, 2011

The Politicization of Montana's Political Practices Commissioner

According to an article in the Billings Gazette last week, the Montana Political Practices Commissioner will have to step down from her position, because her nomination by the governor was not approved by the state legislature. Her office, which handles ethics, campaign finance, and lobbying matter…

Local Government Practice May 9, 2011

Legislative Immunity, Local Government Attorneys, and Bell, California

Going by the reaction of the news media and the Pulitzer committee, the most serious government ethics scandal of 2010 occurred in Bell, California, where the city's top officials were paying themselves huge salaries, taking advantage of an uneducated, uninvolved citizenry. Well, guess what. Accord…

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play May 5, 2011

The Latest on Placement Agents

It's been a year since I last wrote about placement agents, so it's time for an update, based on an article put up yesterday on the Forbes Magazine site, designated for the May 23 issue. Placement agents are intermediaries between pension boards and companies that invest pension boards' funds. They…

Enforcement & Complaints May 4, 2011

The Carrigan Oral Argument: How to Deal with Vagueness

Needless to say, last week's oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Carrigan v. Nevada Commission on Ethics case, which I have been following over the past year, was the last oral argument of the term. Was this putting local government ethics in the caboose or saving the best for last? …

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