Model Code

Sometimes, those who write or amend local government ethics codes forget to make it clear exactly who is covered by an ethics code. Sometimes there is discussion about who should have to file annual disclosure statements, and sometimes there is discussion about whether volunteers should be covered. But too often individuals and bodies not central to local government are ignored.

The Baltimore mayor's attorney has, only days after his client was indicted, given a course to drafters of local government ethics codes on how not to define "doing business" with a local government.

The situation discussed in the previous blog entry also provides a good example of why it is important to have a contract avoidance provision in a local government ethics code. Here is the one in the City Ethics Model Code:

Any contract, agreement, or other business transaction entered into by or with the city which results in or from a...

How do you deal with a department head who helps creates a conflict of interest problem that does not apply to him personally? Few ethics codes contain complicity provisions that deal with this problem. The City Ethics Model Code complicity provision begins: "No one may, directly or indirectly, induce, encourage, or aid anyone to violate any provision of this code...."

It's pop quiz time. Read the following ethics code provision and hypothetical, and answer the question that follows them.

What stronger personal interest is there than family relationships? And yet so many people don't get the problems nepotism in government poses, at least until it takes a chunk out of their wallets.