City Related | City Ethics

May 13, 2009

Clear Evidence of How Dealing Irresponsibly with a Conflict Can Undermine the Public Trust

One great thing about the Internet is that it provides a clear picture of how people respond to officials who do not deal responsibly with their conflicts of interest, and how such irresponsible actions can undermine people's trust in government. A strong example of this can be found in today's Dul…

Conflicts of Interest May 11, 2009

Personal Conflicts and Technicalities

Technicalities should play little role in discussions about local government ethics. But because there are ethics laws, people unashamedly talk about ethics technicalities. They see ethics laws as like any other law, not as minimal requirements that deserve more thinking about what's appropriate th…

Conflicts of Interest May 8, 2009

Being Indirect -- A Gift Loophole to Watch Out For

Earlier this week, I wrote about an application of Louisiana ethics law that I felt was too severe. Today I'm going to write about a Louisiana ethics provision, a fairly typical gift provision that applies to local government officials, which is too weak, because it has a big loophole in it. Ethica…

Conflicts of Interest May 6, 2009

Dealing Responsibly with Business Relationships

In Louisiana, local government officials cannot do any sort of business with anyone who does business with their local government. This position is supported by a settlement reached with an Alexandria council member, according to an article at thetowntalk.com. The charges are here. The business rel…

Enforcement & Complaints May 6, 2009

Abusing Right to Bring Ethics Complaints

In March, I started out a blog entry by saying that "I thought I might write a piece about using ethics complaints for the purpose of political harassment" with respect to Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. But then I discovered that the particular ethics complaint was legitimate, and talked about the com…

Resources & Learning May 4, 2009

Patricia Salkin's Local Government Ethics Blogs

For a year and a half, in her Law of the Land blog, Patricia Salkin has been writing about local government ethics issues in land use cases. And since December 2008, she has been writing occasional local government ethics posts for the International Municipal Lawyers Association Local Government Bl…

May 1, 2009

Judge Allows Employees to Vote for Boss as Mayor in Chicago Heights

Two days ago, I wrote about a Chicago Heights (IL) situation where two council members who work under a third council member were in a position to vote for their boss to be the city's mayor. A suit brought by a group of local ministers to prevent this from happening was dismissed, according to an a…

Conflicts of Interest April 29, 2009

Local Government Employees in Local Government Office

Electing local government employees to local government office can cause problems. There are constitutional protections against forbidding it, but there are conflict of interest arguments against doing it. According to an article in today's Southtown Star, in Chicago Heights (IL) a group of ministe…

Ethics Commissions & Administration April 29, 2009

Ethics Commission Meetings -- Passivity Doesn't Cut It

How often should ethics commissions meet? The usual answer to that question is, As often as they need to. But how often is that? That depends on their responsibilities. If all they do is respond to complaints and requests for advisory opinions, then they need only meet when they receive one or the …

Conflicts of Interest April 27, 2009

Board Members and Jobs Under the Board's Supervision

Massachusetts has an interesting, but I think limited ethics provision that applies to local government board members and jobs under their board's supervision: Section 21A. Except as hereinafter provided, no member of a municipal commission or board shall be eligible for appointment or election by …

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