City Related | City Ethics

June 25, 2014

Patronage in Illinois, or Shakman Is Dead, Long Live Shakman

It's the end of an era. Last week, according to an article in the Chicago Tribune, a federal magistrate declared that Chicago was released from the 1972 Shakman consent decree, which was supposed to end patronage (for a long time, however, patronage went underground; see my 2006 blog post on this).…

Conflicts of Interest June 11, 2014

The Problem with Limiting Conflicts to Pecuniary Benefits

Many people believe that conflicts of interest are limited to situations where money is involved. When these people write ethics laws, as they often do, the law effectively says that where money isn't involved, any conduct is acceptable. For example, Pennsylvania's ethics code, which applies to loc…

Local Government Practice June 10, 2014

An Obligation Not to Be Complicit in Misconduct at Other Governmental Levels

An investigative piece in yesterday's New York Times raises an interesting issue regarding complicity in ethical misconduct: is there an obligation not to be complicit with misconduct at a different governmental level when, arguably, that misconduct financially benefits one's own government? Accor…

Transparency & Disclosure June 6, 2014

Mayoral Disclosure of Meetings with Lobbyists in New York City

Good news and bad news about lobbying from New York City's new mayor. The good news, according to a recent article on the Capital New York website, is that the mayor has said that his administration will disclose "substantive" meetings that members of his administration conduct with lobbyists. This…

Enforcement & Complaints June 5, 2014

Going Beyond Dismissal to Provide Useful Guidance

A week ago, I wrote about a poorly written provision in Denver's ethics code, and the danger it poses not only to Denver, but also elsewhere, since local governments in Colorado and in other states are apt to look at the ethics code of such a large, well-respected city (although now that its highne…

May 29, 2014

Signs of Institutional Corruption in Albany, NY (The City, Not the Capital)

Alysia Santo wrote an excellent Insider Politics column in the Albany Times-Union last week on the need for a post-employment provision in the city that is the capital of New York state. But the columnist went further than this, looking at some aspects of the city's institutionalized corruption (wi…

May 28, 2014

Proposed San Francisco Lobbying Reforms

San Francisco's board of supervisors will soon vote on a number of amendments to its lobbying code (attached; see below). According to an article in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, the amendments are based on recommendations by local good government groups, which have pointed out that loophole…

Ethics Codes & Reform May 27, 2014

Poor Ethics Code Language

Are those who draft local government ethics codes unusually eccentric? Unusually clever? Or just lazy? Whichever it is, they don't seem to consider best practices, or even the practices of better ethics programs. Across the U.S.A., ethics code drafters seem to pull many of their provisions out of a…

Conflicts of Interest May 24, 2014

Issues Arising from Auctioning Official's Purchase of Property at Foreclosure

There are three interesting issues in this one minor matter, involving a Louisiana sheriff's purchase of a house at a foreclosure sale handled by the sheriff's office. The Application of Ethics Laws to Foreclosure Purchases The first issue involves the transaction itself, the particular law in Loui…

May 22, 2014

Green Bay Punts on Lobbying Law

A local lobbying law is only as good as its enforcement, especially when local government leaders provide no leadership. According to a column by Scott Cooper Williams in the Green Bay (WI) Press Gazette yesterday, Green Bay passed a lobbying registration law three years ago and, since that time, o…

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