City Related | City Ethics

Conflicts of Interest August 12, 2008

Is Benefitting Constituents Representing Them or Benefitting Oneself?

Ted Stevens has been indicted for falsely reporting over $250,000 in services he received from an oil company that renovated his home. He denies the charges. Whether or not he's guilty of these charges, he is certainly guilty of a conflict of interest that plagues politicians at all levels of gover…

Transparency & Disclosure August 11, 2008

The Benefits of Interactive Local Government Information on the Internet

In a recent blog entry, I looked at how a couple of Connecticut towns are using the Internet to get citizen feedback and provide transparency. But some cities have gone much further, according to a syndicated column by Neal Peirce. Cities and their citizens are starting to make use of what is known…

Ethics Codes & Reform August 8, 2008

The Perception of Improper Ethics Reform

The passing of new ethics code provisions in Anoka, MN (pop. 18,000) provides a fine case study of how to try to pass off useless ethics code reform as something valuable. According to an article in the Anoka County Union, it appears the city council has a public confidence problem. The council's r…

Ethics Codes & Reform August 7, 2008

Truth-Telling

A lie to protect oneself or to mislead others in one's own interest is as bald a conflict of interest as there can be. But since it usually involves no money, and since it is hard to prove the difference between a lie and a mistake in knowledge or interpretation (which is why the word "lie" is neve…

Enforcement & Complaints August 6, 2008

Settlement Agreements

Most local government ethics codes do not explicitly deal with settlement agreements, but most state ethics codes do. I left settlement agreements out of my first draft of the City Ethics Model Code, but I have just added a provision, Section 213(5). The language is based on that of several state e…

August 5, 2008

State Party Chair Tells Local Officials That Anything Goes

There are many ways for elected officials to undermine democracy, but trying to scare people away from registering to vote is among the most insidious. This is what Jeffrey M. Frederick, member of the Virginia House of Delegates (legislature) and chair of the Virginia Republican Party (RPV), is doi…

July 29, 2008

The Ethics Show Must Go On

Money may be the root of all evil, but it's a nice way to spice up ethics training. Take the Ethics Rock! program, designed for lawyers who have lots of money to spend on CLE credits. Ethics case studies are done to the tunes of such songs as "American Pie" and "A Day in the Life." The songs are pe…

Conflicts of Interest July 25, 2008

The Spitzer Report and the Need for Clearer Boundaries Between Public and Private Work

The New York State Commission on Public Integrity released a report yesterday on the allegations relating to the Spitzer Administration's attempts to gather and make public the travel abuses of the Senate Majority Leader, in order to tarnish his reputation. See the New York Times article. There are…

Conflicts of Interest July 23, 2008

An Upside-Down Conflict of Interest

According to a recent article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the chair of one of the city's economic development commissions made an unusual deal with, and a half-million-dollar instant profit from (the purchase and sale transactions were filed at the same time), the commission three years before …

Local Government Practice July 21, 2008

The Ethics of Naming Public Buildings, Etc. After Serving Officials

In my recent entry about Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, I said nothing about the fact that the university center he was seeking funds for has his name on it. An excellent entry by John Fund placed up on Huffington Post today focuses on this part of the story. Yes, why should anything, especially …

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