City Related | City Ethics

Conflicts of Interest September 28, 2008

Ethics Laws and Difficult Family Predicaments

Sometimes it's very difficult for a government official to deal with a conflict of interest involving a member of his or her immediate family. The common approach to ethics is to assume that an official will favor a family member, but sometimes an ethics law can take an official out of the uncomfor…

September 28, 2008

Setting the Record Straight in Missouri

A troubling KMOV television news report from Missouri (yes, another story from Missouri) has caught fire on right-leaning blogs. A self-styled Obama Truth Squad has been formed in Missouri, consisting of city and county prosecutors and sheriffs, who intend to set the record straight in response to …

Resources & Learning September 27, 2008

Logical Fallacies V - Accusations of Hypocrisy or Inconsistency

A year and a half ago, I started a series of blog entries on logical fallacies and their use in municipal politics. Logical fallacies are pseudo-arguments that consciously or unconsciously attempt to falsely persuade or manipulate people. They treat people as means rather than as ends, manipulating…

Ethics Codes & Reform September 25, 2008

Government Ethics and the Clash Between Rules-Based and Ends-Based Ethical Approaches

The most serious obstacle to the acceptance of conflict of interest programs in government is the clash between government ethics' use of a rules-based (deontological) ethical approach, and government officials' use of an ends-based (teleological) ethical approach. It's not that these two approache…

Ethics Codes & Reform September 20, 2008

Ethics Pledges -- Make Them Stick

Here is an editorial from today's Salt Lake City Tribune about the state of the state's ethics laws. I've read editorials like this before, but this one sounds unusually hopeless. After the editorial, I will throw out an idea about how to go about getting politicians to make the right sort of ethic…

Ethics Codes & Reform September 17, 2008

Regular Review of Ethics Codes

In Arcata, California, according to an article in yesterday's Times-Standard, there is a policy to review the city's conflict of interest code every two years. This is extremely rare. Ethics codes are usually reviewed only when there is a scandal or when a mayor wants to add a feather to his or her…

September 16, 2008

Stadium Sweets

Is it a conflict of interest for local government officials to give themselves perks such as luxury boxes at sports stadiums, where they can not only entertain dignitaries in their government roles, which few would contest, but also their friends and contributors in their roles as person or candida…

September 16, 2008

What It Takes to Bring Down Government Leaders -- Thailand and Detroit

When U.S. presidents, or even mayors, are brought down by ethics violations, it takes some pretty hefty skullduggery and covering up to do it. But according to a Christian Science Monitor article this week, with the great title "As a TV chef, Thai P.M. cooked his own goose," Thailand's Constitution…

Local Government Practice September 15, 2008

An In-Depth Look at Unethical Leadership

It is rare for the news media to look at government ethics any more deeply than a particular scandal, usually one involving law-breaking, money, sex, or a public argument between parties or within a party. The vice-presidential nomination of Sarah Palin has led to the most in-depth look at governme…

Local Government Practice September 1, 2008

Local Governments' Fiduciary Duties to Bondholders

Local governments may only be accountable to their citizens, but they also have fiduciary duties to those who invest in their bonds. Many local governments don't act like they do, however." In Gretchen Morgenson's column in yesterday's New York Times, she cites a study by DPC Data, one of the four …

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