“It’s much to-do about not much. I’m trying to run a city, and
you’re worried about people’s relationships?” These are the words of
Mount Vernon, NY mayor Ernest Davis, who is the subject of IRS and
FBI investigations, and now an investigation by the city's ethics
board, according to an
article in Wednesday's Journal News.
Today, I received a copy of the Dallas
City Council agenda addendum for its August 22 meeting.
This addendum contains (pp. 11-17) extensive information about a
large ($434,495) contract for "the assessment of the City’s current ethics
guidelines and the development of an ethics training program." City
Ethics was a partner in the losing bid of the Josephson Institute of...
For the second time in a year, a local ethics commission has been
the subject of a grand jury report. The first was San Francisco's
(see my
blog post). There, it was a civil grand jury and the focus was
on the commission. Here and now, it is a criminal grand jury, and
the focus is on the county executive and other officials, as well as
ethics commission members. The...
A post
yesterday in Coates' Canons: NC Local Government Law Blog raises
an interesting issue about the situation of a local government
candidate who has an interest in a contract with the local government
which, by NC law, is prohibited not for candidates, but for a winning
candidate the day he or she takes office. This provides a good occasion
to look at the intersection of candidates and local government ethics...
This week, according to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer,
Cuyahoga County (which includes Cleveland) passed a new ethics code,
largely based on the
recommended code
drafted in October by the Code of Ethics Workgroup, set up by the Cuyahoga County Transition Advisory Group Executive
Committee (the transition referred to is a change in form of
government; see...
Max H. Bazerman and Ann
E. Tenbrunsel, the authors of the new book Blind
Spots:
Why
We
Fail
to
Do
What's
Right and What to Do about It (Princeton University
Press), point out that egocentrism is in our nature. We naturally see
the world from our point of view. We squeeze what we see and experience
into our view of ourselves. We never get too far away from the baby's
concept that the world exists...