City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

December 9, 2010

Municipal Bid Rigging Nationwide and Ethics Day in Chicago

A Municipal Bid Rigging Scheme Comes to Light
According to an article in the New York Times this week, Banc of America Securities (which recently merged with Merrill Lynch) agreed to pay the SEC and others $137 million to settle charges related to a municipal bond bid-rigging scheme. For those who think competitive bidding rules are enough, this case should make you think otherwise.

Conflicts of Interest December 9, 2010

Scrutinizing Strict Scrutiny in a Government Ethics Context

This week the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) met in Washington, D.C. and, as usual, I learned about a lot of cases and matters I didn't know about. I will be sharing some of the more important of my new revelations in blog posts over the next couple of weeks.

Local Government Practice December 3, 2010

A Lack of Empathy

Many people take a character approach to government ethics. That is, they see government ethics as a matter of integrity, and ethics training as a matter of improving an individual's character.

But the aspect of character most important to ethics is not goodness, honesty, or integrity. It is empathy, as defined by President Obama and discussed in a 2009 blog post of mine entitled "Moral Imagination."

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play December 2, 2010

Conflicts and Money

According to an Associated Press article yesterday, a New York City school principal "didn't think there was a conflict of interest because there was no exchange of money."

December 1, 2010

Ordinary Local Government Ethics News Ignored

Sensational local government ethics news, such as scandals, is online in minutes. Ordinary local government ethics news, such as the appointment of a new executive director or general counsel, is covered more slowly, if at all.

December 1, 2010

The Enforcers or the Perpetrators?

After being convicted of money laundering for the purpose of illegally giving corporate money to Texas legislative candidates last week, Tom Delay said, "This is an abuse of power. It’s a miscarriage of justice. I still maintain my innocence. The criminalization of politics undermines our very system and I’m very disappointed in the outcome."

I too have, on several occasions, criticized the criminalization of government ethics. But are Delay and I talking about the same thing?

November 30, 2010

A Miscellany

Problematic Development
According to Harry Themal's column in yesterday's News Journal, the newly elected county executive of New Castle County (DE) wants to review government processes "top-to-bottom." There is just one catch. According to Themal, land use procedures are most in need of reform, but the new county executive's wife is a big land-use attorney representing local developers.

November 29, 2010

A Pattern of Behavior Investigated, Secretly, as Distinct Acts

Investigations of purported ethics violations by the Middlesex County (MA) sheriff apparently led to his suicide on Saturday. According to a Boston Globe chronology, the sheriff filed papers for retirement on October 28, while running for re-election on November 2. His plan was to get a pension and a salary.

Conflicts of Interest November 28, 2010

Dealing Responsibly with Contract Conflicts

Two important issues arise from a story about a competitive bid for a concrete contract for an arena in Louisville which, according to an article in yesterday's Louisville Courier-Journal, was won by a company solely owned by a member of the state task force that chose the site, the chair of the board that manages the arena, a close friend of the coach of the arena's primary tenant, and a nonvoting member of the arena authority, whose executive director reports directly to the board that

Conflicts of Interest November 27, 2010

An Instructive Local Government Ethics Matter in a Recent French Film

There's an instructive local government ethics situation in the 2008 French film The Class (Entre les murs), which I watched yesterday evening. A teenage student is being given a disciplinary hearing at his public high school in Paris after accidentally hitting a girl with his bag and walking out of his class. His teacher is a teacher representative on the disciplinary committee.

Subscribe to