Advisory Opinions | City Ethics

Resources & Learning April 6, 2011

Blind Spots II — Motivated Blindness

Although we have more trouble seeing our own unethical behavior than we do seeing others' unethical behavior, 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, have found that people have a tendency "to overlook t…

Ethics Commissions & Administration April 2, 2011

A Remedy for Lack of Ethics Training and Advice?

How important is ethics training? According to Justice Ginsburg's dissent in Connick v. Thompson, a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 29, it is the difference between life and death. In this case, ethics training involved training regarding the requirements of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U…

Conflicts of Interest March 28, 2011

Incompatible Offices in Perspective

Incompatible offices is a form of conflict I have not dealt with in this blog. A good occasion to do this is a recent California attorney general's opinion interpreting the state's 2005 incompatible offices statute, which applies to local and state "public officers." The opinion provides valuable d…

Ethics Codes & Reform March 17, 2011

Nonviolence and Government Ethics IV – Moral Courage

In his book The Search for a Nonviolent Future, Michael N. Nagler wrote, "Anyone who plucks up the courage to offer an opponent a way out of their conflict can find herself or himself wielding an unexpected power." You may need to read this sentence over a few times before it completely sinks in. T…

Conflicts of Interest March 9, 2011

Determining Whether Something Paid For Has Been Discounted and Is Therefore a Gift

My last blog post raised an interesting question. When an annual financial disclosure form (or, in some jurisdictions a special declaration of gifts received) requires the disclosure of all gifts from restricted sources, what are the expectations of an official who pays rent to a restricted source?…

Ethics Commissions & Administration February 23, 2011

Regional Public Integrity Officers in New York State

Update: August 26, 2011 (see below) At the same time there is talk of local government ethics reform in New York State, the new attorney general has his own plan for local government oversight. But it is all criminal in nature. His idea is to place public integrity officers in all thirteen attorney…

Ethics Codes & Reform February 22, 2011

NY State Bar Association Report on Local Government Ethics Reform

On January 28, the New York State Bar Association issued a report on government ethics reform in New York State, which includes a section on local government ethics reform. The report points out the many inadequacies of Article 18 of the General Municipal Law (click on GMU, then scroll down and cli…

Ethics Commissions & Administration December 13, 2010

Wise Words on the Importance of Neutral Ethics Advice

Update: December 14, 2010 (see below): One thing I learned at the COGEL conference last week is that Darleen Druyun, the infamous Air Force procurement officer who favored Boeing before taking a job with it, had been given ethics advice on six occasions and ignored it. In trying to find something o…

Conflicts of Interest November 22, 2010

The Conflicts of Teachers on School Boards

Teachers and teachers' family members seem to be just the sort of people to run for school boards. They have either the expertise and/or the interest in education. But with them come conflicts of interest, and these can cast doubt on what they're doing there in the first place. Teachers in the part…

September 24, 2010

A Miscellany

An Active EC Is a Good Thing Local officials often say that because there are no complaints to or advisory opinions by their ethics commissions, their town or city government does not have ethics problems. Actually, it's the other way around. Local governments with active ethics commissions, especi…

Subscribe to Advisory Opinions