City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Local Government Practice October 9, 2010

Learning and Forming a Local Government's Unethical Environment

I chose to specialize in local government ethics because this is where it all starts. This is where the individuals who become our representatives experience their first unethical environment, become team players, learn the rules of the game, and begin to feel a special entitlement. One good thing …

October 8, 2010

Should a District Attorney Be Counsel to a Council?

The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday ran a fascinating article about Dallas County's district attorney. It caught my interest because he was accused of a conflict of interest, but accusing this district attorney of a conflict of interest is like accusing King Kong of being big. The Dallas County DA…

Conflicts of Interest October 7, 2010

Moonlighting for a Vendor and Donations of Sick Time from Subordinates

There's a lot to learn from the chief of New Orleans' emergency medical service's past conflicts of interest, which have only recently become public. Despite the compassion one must feel for the official, the conflicts were poorly handled by her and by the former mayor and his administration. Accor…

Enforcement & Complaints October 6, 2010

Stamford Official's Attempt to Prevent Government Employees from Filing Ethics Complaints Is Nipped in the Bud

There's a new twist to the ethics mess in Stamford, which I described in a blog post last week. It turns out that, according to an article in the Stamford Advocate, a board of finance member, against whom an ethics complaint had been brought, charged that the city employee who filed the complaint "…

Conflicts of Interest October 5, 2010

Does Recusal Require Action and/or Words?

Note: This blog post was posted on September 22, and I accidentally deleted it. This is a reposting. What is recusal? More to the point, does the act of recusal require merely inaction, or action, or action and words? This has become an issue in the city of Santa Fe, but it is important to establis…

Enforcement & Complaints October 5, 2010

A Local Legislative Body's Duty to Investigate When Legislative Activities Are Involved

I've written several blog posts about the criminal trials of a Baltimore council member and the former Baltimore mayor, focusing on their successful legislative immunity defenses (1 2 3 4). However, the former mayor was convicted of embezzling $500 in gift cards (no defense to that), and she resign…

Conflicts of Interest October 5, 2010

Confusion of Person and Office

In the Indiana Secretary of State race, the headlines are all about voter fraud. But the bigger problem, I think, involves the failure of one of the candidates to differentiate himself from his seat on the Fishers city council. According to an article in the Indianapolis Star, although the candidat…

October 4, 2010

A Proposed Ethics Code for Memphis Falls Short

Three years ago, I featured Memphis in a blog post, noting that, in the last six years, 66 government officials, employees, and contractors had been found guilty of various sorts of government-related crimes. Last year, I noted that the city's mayor had resigned under a cloud of accusations. In bet…

Enforcement & Complaints October 1, 2010

Rules Disallowing Complaints Before Elections

Many jurisdictions have a rule that disallows the filing of an ethics complaint against an elected official within so many days before an election. The purpose of such a rule is to prevent the abuse of the ethics process for political purposes. But is this the best solution to this problem? This qu…

Conflicts of Interest October 1, 2010

Disclosure by Lawyer-Legislators

Two days ago, I wrote about a Louisiana lawyer-legislator who is arguing that disclosure rules should not apply to lawyers, because the practice of law is regulated by the state supreme court. The story behind an indictment in New Jersey this week makes a strong argument for applying disclosure rul…

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