City Related | City Ethics

Local Government Practice December 15, 2008

Co-Opting Subordinates Through Ordering Unethical Conduct

Last week, the Kansas City, MO city council ordered an investigation into possibly unethical conduct by the city's mayor, according to an article in the Kansas City Star. The principal conduct is the use of the mayor's former communications director to work on a political campaign (not the mayor's …

December 15, 2008

Rhode Island Legislative Immunity Brief

I just obtained the Rhode Island Ethics Commission's memorandum in support of its jurisdiction over legislators, which was contested by the former state senate president William V. Irons, as discussed in an earlier blog entry. The argument of the EC's brief is not typical, because the ethics commis…

December 13, 2008

California Limits Local Government Officials' Access to Free Tickets

Sports and other event tickets are a constant issue in local government ethics. Yes, mayors are often expected to attend major events, but who else is? Why should city ownership of a facility matter in handing out tickets? The ownership is not the officials' or employees', but the citizens'. Accord…

December 13, 2008

Blagojevich's Realtor Wife and Lobbyist Tipper

I was in Chicago for the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws annual conference for a week, which is why I haven't been blogging lately. I was there when Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested, so the arrest and the tales of selling a Senate seat and blackmailing the Chicago Tribune are old …

December 1, 2008

Birmingham Mayor/Former Jefferson County Executive Arrested -- Gifts Central

Type the word "ethics" into the Birmingham, AL website search box and nothing comes up. Nor can you find the city's ordinances. Mayor Larry Langford bills himself as a great reformer, but he certainly hasn't done anything to reform the city's ethics laws, or at least to let anyone know about them. …

Conflicts of Interest December 1, 2008

The Gifts Dilemma

There are two principal ways of dealing with gifts to government officials and employees, and both of them are unsatisfactory, although certainly better than ignoring them completely. One approach is prohibition, the other disclosure. Prohibition makes it clear that it is wrong for government offic…

Conflicts of Interest November 30, 2008

Correcting a Conflict After It Becomes an Issue

In Saybrook, IL, two members of both a sportman's club and a village board of trustees resigned their sportman's club membership so they would have no conflict voting on annexation of the club by the village. According to a letter to the editor of the Bloomington Pantagraph, the two members reserve…

Local Government Practice November 26, 2008

Patronage - Good for Politics, Bad for Administration

According to an article in the Washington Post this week, a politics professor, David E. Lewis, looked at the Bush administration, comparing agencies run by political appointees and those run by career bureaucrats. Although the appointees tended to be better educated and very successful in the priv…

November 25, 2008

Nevada Senator Given Legislative Immunity from Ethics Commission Jurisdiction

A Nevada court found yesterday that the state ethics commission did not have jurisdiction over a state senator on grounds of legislative immunity, even though the state constitution has no Speech or Debate Clause. The judge gave the senator a preliminary injuction to prevent his having to appear be…

Conflicts of Interest November 25, 2008

The Gift

Gift disclosure and limitations are an important part of government ethics. But rarely do we think of what gifts mean. Usually this goes little further than politicians saying, "I can't be bought." But gifts aren't about buying. In fact, gifts are the opposite of buying, according to Lewis Hyde in …

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