County Related

Today's big story comes to us from Cook County, Illinois, and although it's about whether a government lawyer has a conflict of interest, the matter falls into the area of government ethics in which Chicago and Cook County have led the way for decades: patronage.

Here's the situation. An assistant Cook County state's attorney defends the county against charges of patronage. This suit, part of a series originally filed in 1969, recently was settled, with $3.2 million being paid to...

In Arcata, California, according to an article in yesterday's Times-Standard, there is a policy to review the city's conflict of interest code every two years. This is extremely rare. Ethics codes are usually reviewed only when there is a scandal or when a mayor wants to add a feather to his or her hat.

A regular review of an ethics code...

Is it a conflict of interest for local government officials to give themselves perks such as luxury boxes at sports stadiums, where they can not only entertain dignitaries in their government roles, which few would contest, but also their friends and contributors in their roles as person or candidate?

It is rare for the news media to look at government ethics any more deeply than a particular scandal, usually one involving law-breaking, money, sex, or a public argument between parties or within a party. The vice-presidential nomination of Sarah Palin has led to the most in-depth look at government ethics for a long time.

An article in yesterday's New York Times sets out a number of the...

Local governments may only be accountable to their citizens, but they also have fiduciary duties to those who invest in their bonds.

Many local governments don't act like they do, however." In Gretchen Morgenson's column in yesterday's New York Times, she cites a study by DPC Data, one of the four...

It's great to read newspaper commentary that shows an understanding of how an unethical organization acts, in this case, the effects of its employment of denial. Scott Lewis, voiceofsandiego.org's Executive Editor and political commentator, did this in a column this week.