Contractors and Vendors

Influence. It's a big word in a lot of government ethics laws, and a word that those who write such laws should think at least twice about. As everyone knows, New York Governor David Paterson has been accused by the NY Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) of having violated the state's gift ban by …

I'm back from the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) conference, and I will be sharing some valuable information from the talks and panels I attended. In a panel on gifts provisions in ethics codes, the panel consisted not only of the usual government ethics professionals, but also a lawye…

Preferential treatment is one of the most difficult ethics provisions to deal with, because it seems on its face so open-ended. Every time a decision is made, someone is preferred over someone else, whether it's a hiring decision, a contract award, or a zoning change. But if these decisions are mad…