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City Related

March 10, 2011

A Rotten Crop of Oranges in Tamarac, Florida

I talk a lot about poor ethics environments, probably the single most important element in unethical conduct. But since loyalty is the strongest force in such environments, a great deal of work is done to hide the existence of poor ethics environments. After unethical conduct is discovered, it is r…
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Conflicts of Interest March 8, 2011

Confidentiality After an Official's Resignation

It is generally agreed that it is best to preserve an ethics commission's jurisdiction over officials and employees after they quit or leave office. There are two reasons for this. One, to prevent them from escaping enforcement by quitting or leaving office. This is especially important because it …
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March 7, 2011

New York City's Civic Virtue Sent to the Graveyard

According to an article in today's New York Times, this allegorical neoFlorentine sculpture called "Triumph of Civic Virtue," by Frederick MacMonnies was commissioned for City Hall Park in New York City back in 1922. Its heroic male figure, quickly dubbed "Rough Boy," stands over two women, Corrupt…
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Conflicts of Interest March 6, 2011

Voting with a Conflict of Interest Is Not Always Illegal, But It's Never Good for Democracy

"It's a very powerful story of a public official who wanted to do the right thing, who got appropriate advice, and then ended up being punished. He was punished for doing his public duty and voting, just because a political ally was involved. I don't call that a conflict of interest. I call that de…
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March 4, 2011

How Can I Hamper Thee? — Let Me Count the Ways

In the last installment of the ongoing Stamford (CT) ethics battle, the major antagonist had reached a settlement with the ethics board, and the principal cases, both ethics proceedings and a federal suit against the ethics board and the ethics complainants, were withdrawn. But this is a grudge mat…
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March 4, 2011

A Miscellany: Misuse of Government Employees and Legislative Immunity

A Clever Use of Government Employees for Political Purposes According to an article in the Miami Herald, it appears that the mayor of Miami-Dade County, currently facing a recall election, is playing a clever little game that involves the use of government employees for political purposes. The admi…
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March 1, 2011

Miscellany of a Hundred Eyes

Let's Not Drink to It Yes, it has happened. Local government ethics has been compared to Prohibition. According to an article in the La Porte (IN) Herald Argus last Friday, this comparison was made by a superior court judge in town, who said that Prohibition "was intended to increase the productivi…
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Conflicts of Interest February 28, 2011

A Few Interesting Conflict Issues Raised in a Western Suburb of Boston

According to an article in the Metro West Daily News on Friday, the Ashland (MA) board of selectmen sent two reported allegations of possible acts of ethical misconduct to the state ethics commission. The request sought not enforcement, but clarification. I hope by "clarification" the board meant t…
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February 26, 2011

A Miscellany

Conflicting Employment Is Nothing to Rave About Some forms of conflicting employment are wrong to the extent that the only way to handle the conflict responsibly is to resign from one of the jobs. If this is not done, even a minor conflict can be very damaging, especially when there are already oth…
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Enforcement & Complaints February 23, 2011

Serious Penalties — Criminal vs. Civil

I'm going to keep showing how wrong the criminal enforcement of ethics laws is until there is at least some sign of movement away from it. This time I will do it by looking at two recent proceedings in which serious penalties are involved, one criminal, the other civil. The criminal penalties are a…
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