County Related

Undisclosed conflicts can cause a lot of problems, but rarely are they
a matter of life and death. In Collin County, TX, north of Dallas, an
undisclosed conflict could have been responsible for a man's death
sentence (and, perhaps, many more sentences).<br>
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<a href="http://www.dupageco.org/&quot; target="”_blank”">DuPage County, IL</a>, a county of
nearly a million people just outside Chicago (its largest town is
Naperville), is juggling two ethics ordinance revision processes, one
for the county, the other for the county election commission. Both
appear to have attracted some controversy.<br>
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Republican candidates in Cumberland County, in southern New Jersey
(pop. 150,000), are pushing for several ethics reforms, including some
fresh ideas.<br>
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According to <a href="http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cumberland/article_acc44e…; target="”_blank”">an

<b>Update - see below</b> (9/2/09)<br>
One of the biggest limitations on local government ethics codes can be
state ethics laws. In Connecticut, for example, state laws seriously limit how
much local ethics commissions can fine violators of an ethics code. In
fact, the language is so vague, many lawyers insist that local ethics
commissions can't fine at all. State legislators, most of whom are former local government legislators, don't want to let local ethics commissions get out of hand.<br>
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One of the principal reasons I have devoted myself to local government
ethics is that the ethical habits of government officials and politicians are usually formed at the local level.
Politicians who become accustomed to a poor local ethics environment
bring their values to state and federal government.<br>
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The saddest side of this is that many politicians learn at the local
level that running on an anti-corruption platform is a good way to get

It's rare to see the clear results of unethical behavior in local
government. Sadly, exceptionally clear results can be seen in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/us/01alabama.html&quot; target="”_blank”">front-page
article</a> in today's New York <span>Times.</span><br>
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Jefferson County, Alabama, the home of Birmingham, had a serious

One problem local governments have in drafting ethics codes is that
they want it to be too many things, to serve too many purposes. They
want it to be an aspirational code of conduct, making local government
more civil and government officials more honest and fair. They want it
to make officials follow all relevant laws and constitutional
provisions. And they want it to deal with conflicts of interest, that
is, with the situations where personal interests may be placed above
the public interest.<br>
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As I have noted again and again, there is no more difficult, conflicted
role than that of a local government attorney. In small towns, there's
not a lot that can be done. But in cities and counties, there are
several things that can be done to lessen the local government
attorney's conflicts.<br>
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Over the last two days, a new-fangled local government ethics
controversy has taken Ohio by storm:  allowing counties to sell advertising on their websites. A law to that effect has been inserted in the
pending state budget bill, according to <a href="http://www.ohio.com/news/ohiocentric/48617447.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
Associated Press article</a>.<br>
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Maricopa County (home of Phoenix) is doing an excellent job of showing
America's local governments what not to do. In April, I wrote about the conflict
that existed when the county attorney, after representing the county
board of supervisors as it put together plans and contracts for a new
county courthouse, decided to investigate the board's handling of these
plans and contracts. The outcry over this conflict led the county
attorney to turn the investigation over to another county.<br>
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