City Related | City Ethics

Ethics Codes & Reform April 9, 2009

Ethics Practice vs. Ethics Law

One of the biggest problems people have with government ethics is acknowledging the difference between ethics enforcement and ethics practice. Ethics enforcement is legal. You cannot enforce rules that are not in the law. But when it comes to ethics practice, the law represents only the minimum req…

Transparency & Disclosure April 1, 2009

The Importance of Public Financial Disclosure

According to an article yesterday in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, there's a battle going on in New Orleans, but this time it involves a flood of public documents, as well as a trickle of financial disclosure forms. The battle is between the mayor and the city council, on one side, and a civil ri…

Ethics Codes & Reform March 31, 2009

Atlanta Ethics Report a Model for Other Local Governments

Happy Fifth Birthday, Atlanta Ethics Office! The Ethics Office has celebrated its birthday with a 40-page report on its first five years of existence. It is well worth looking at. The report is entitled Ethics Is the Only Deal, from something Mayor Shirley Franklin said: “Ethics is a big deal. . .…

Local Government Practice March 29, 2009

Representation Without Taxation - A Local Government Example

Update: February 5, 2010 (see below) Alaska and a small utility district in Texas. Who would have thought they could have anything in common. But they do: representation without taxation. Next month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal by NAMUDNO (Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District …

Transparency & Disclosure March 26, 2009

Hiding Conflicts vs. Disclosing Them

Hiding a conflict of interest can lead to much worse problems than appearing before an ethics commission and getting your hand slapped, or even getting slapped with a fine. A criminal case in Winston-Salem, NC this week shows how bad things can get. According to an article in today's Winston-Salem …

Conflicts of Interest March 24, 2009

The Responsibilities of a Local Government Official's Spouse

Ethics codes do not generally have rules about the involvement of spouses of government officials in citizen groups. But this can create serious appearance problems, as it has in St. Charles, Illinois, an hour west of Chicago, according to an article in yesterday's Chicago Tribune. The wife of a St…

March 23, 2009

Two Ethics Developments in Texas

There are two interesting developments going on in Texas right now, and two bills that will be heard in committee today. One involves a request to the state legislature by El Paso County to allow local governments to give their ethics commissions teeth (they now can only censure). According to an a…

Ethics Commissions & Administration March 21, 2009

Common Errors Involving Ethics Commission Jurisdiction

I recently wrote about the problem of having a toothless ethics commission in a Connecticut city. According to an article in yesterday's Danbury News-Times, it's good that another Connecticut municipality's ethics commission is toothless. But the story has less to do with teeth than it has to do wi…

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play March 19, 2009

Can We Do Without Pay-to-Play?

In third world countries, corruption is said to grease the wheels of commerce. We don't like to believe that this is true in the U.S., and we certainly don't have to grease the palms of ordinary government employees in order to get any service. But what would happen if pay-to-play were truly brough…

Enforcement & Complaints March 12, 2009

Anonymous Complaints

Anonymous complaints are both important and problematic. Without anonymous tips and hotlines, our justice system would not work nearly as well as it does. With ethics programs, officials involved in unethical conduct often have great power in the community, and the people who know what they are doi…

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