City Related

Jacksonville's ethics commission continues to explore interesting and valuable ideas, according to an article this week in the Jacksonville Financial News & Daily Record. At the first meeting of the commission's new procurement subcommittee, loopholes in the bidding process were discussed. Procurem…

In May I wrote a blog post about a so-called ethics emergency in Corpus Christi, declared by a lame-duck council at its last meeting. This so-called emergency was the excuse for pushing through ethics reforms without running them by the city's ethics commission or allowing public discussion. The ne…

"I have counseled many individuals and companies grappling with investigations, but this is the first time I've provided this type of advice to a municipality." When I saw this quotation in the National Law Journal, I thought, "Yeah, that's because municipalities aren't investigated, people are." T…

There's a lot of talk about the lack of government ethics in Albany, New York State's capital, but not much about the state of government ethics in the city of Albany itself. In July, the Albany Times-Union ran a long article on the mayor and the police chief's relationship with the city's largest …

Chicago politicians are endlessly creative. A few weeks ago I wrote about an alderman on the zoning committee who pushed for zoning changes to help developers who used his wife as their realtor. It turns out that his boss, William J. P. Banks, head of the zoning committee, is going to have a retire…

In Jacksonville-- where City Ethics' founder, Carla Miller, is the Ethics Officer -- the ethics commission is taking the lead in ethics reform, according to an article in the Jacksonville Daily Record. The EC legislative subcommittee is recommending, for presentation to the charter revision commiss…

It may be midsummer, but it's still a busy season for local government ethics. Here's how a few local governments are dealing with ethics reform. Palm Beach County commissioners agreed to create an inspector general and ethics commission, according to an article in the Palm Beach Post. The commissi…