Ethics Commissions/Administration

Here's another blog post about a Georgian who wants out of EC jurisdiction.

Some ethics commissions, especially state ethics commissions, have no jurisdiction over officials once they leave office. Especially when ECs require confidentiality regarding complaints until probable cause is found, this lack of jurisdiction allows officials to resign before their unethical conduct becomes public. And it allows officials to evade enforcement.

Government lawyers enjoy exceptions to transparency laws. Should they also be excepted from government ethics laws? Atlanta senior assistant city attorney Robert N. Godfrey thinks so, according to an article in yesterday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The perceived independence of an ethics commission is extremely important. This perceived independence has become an issue in Frankfort (KY), according to an article in Tuesday's State-Journal.

Yesterday, my attention was drawn to a new organization called Foundation for Ethics in Public Service, Inc., which operates as the website www.reportpubliccorruption.org. On February 11, its executive director, Leslie W. Merritt, Jr., a former North Carolina state auditor, sent out a statement to...

Update: June 7, 2010 (see below)

There is some very good news out of Rhode Island, even if it is over a month old. The house majority leader, now the speaker of the house, Gordon Fox, has introduced a bill seeking a referendum in November on a constitutional...

Here are two interesting situations where it is not clear what an ethics commission's role and authority are. One in Baltimore, the other in Philadelphia.