City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

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?

Enforcement & Complaints April 28, 2011

Who Should Pay for Attorney's Fees in Ethics Proceedings?

Update: September 17, 2011 (see below)

An article in yesterday's Stamford Advocate keeps asking the question, Who should pay? The article is referring to attorney's fees related to an ethics proceeding. Most ethics codes do not deal with this issue, and therefore it often turns into a big political controversy after the fact, leaving a bad taste in citizens' mouths, especially if they are forced to foot the bill.

Conflicts of Interest April 26, 2011

Ethical Obligations Do Not End at the Line Drawn By Jurisdictional Language

There are two morals to the following story. One involves law, the other ethics.

Ethics Commissions & Administration April 25, 2011

The Messages Sent by an Ethics-Related Legal Defense Fund

Kerry Cavanaugh, a Los Angeles Daily News columnist, got it wrong when she started a recent column, "Here's another reminder that politicians are not like you or me. If I get caught taking inappropriate gifts or violating the company's ethics policy, I might be fired, suspended without pay or forced to open my wallet to pay the penalty.

Conflicts of Interest April 23, 2011

The Perils of Nepotism

I was just reading a review in The Economist of Francis Fukayama's new book, The Origins of Political Order. The review made me think differently about nepotism, a government ethics issue that is usually considered rather minor.

Ethics Codes & Reform April 22, 2011

What Is Free Speech?

In a letter to the editor in yesterday's New York Times, two lawyers who represent clients seeking to gut Arizona's Citizens Clean Elections public campaign financing program end by calling Arizona's program "a vision of unconstitutional dystopia, not free speech."

Conflicts of Interest April 21, 2011

A Conflict Regarding Conflicts

Here's a situation from Lafayette Parish, a city of 220,000 in south-central Louisiana, which shows how when one official fails to deal responsibly with his conflicts, he is likely to be complicit in helping other officials deal irresponsibly with their conflicts and with those of their colleagues. When this official is a government attorney, it can cause an entire board or agency to deal irresponsibly with a conflict.

Ethics Commissions & Administration April 20, 2011

Three Preventative Approaches to the Legislative Immunity Defense

I've written many blog posts about various cases where the legislative immunity defense has been made, but I haven't pulled together in one post the three alternative, preventative approaches local governments can take to deal with the issue of legislative immunity before anyone raises it as a defense. It is far better, and far less expensive, to prevent local legislators from raising the defense of legislative immunity than it is to litigate this complex issue.

April 19, 2011

A Miscellany

Wow! Get a Load of Those Salaries!
It's official. People get more upset over big salaries to government officials than over bribes, kickbacks, unbid contracts, and the like, which cost taxpayers far, far more.

Local Government Practice April 16, 2011

Government Attorney Advice and the Attorney-Client Privilege

In my last post, I dealt with the many arguments against application of the attorney-client privilege in the context of an inspector general, or ethics commission, investigation of official misconduct. One thing I did not do was respond to the general argument in favor of attorney-client privilege.

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