City Related | City Ethics

Ethics Commissions & Administration December 10, 2013

The Many Reasons Why a City or County Attorney Should Not Provide Ethics Advice

A month ago, I wrote about some problems Honolulu's ethics program was having with the corporation counsel. The problems have continued. The big issue this last week has been the corporation counsel's provision of ethics advice. So far, the argument has primarily taken place in the form of memos. T…

Enforcement & Complaints December 2, 2013

Carrigan Decision: Seeking Ethics Advice Is Due Process

The long-running Carrigan case (Carrigan I, that is) may have finally come to an end. And it's a very good end. After the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Carrigan's absurd argument that a council member has a First Amendment free speech right to vote on legislative matters where he is conflicted, the …

November 25, 2013

Top Tallahassee Officials Oppose Ethics Advisory Panel Recommendations

Now that Tallahassee's mayor has opposed all of the recommendations from a special ethics advisory panel (attached; see below), according to an article last week in the Tallahassee Democrat, it's about time to look at those recommendations and what, it appears, is going to happen to them. The mayor…

Transparency & Disclosure November 20, 2013

How Much Needs to Be Disclosed?

Maryland has a rule that local ethics ordinances must require the disclosure of all an elected official's real property, stocks, and bonds. According to an article in the Carroll County Times, the Mount Airy council keeps passing an ethics ordinance that requires the disclosure only of real propert…

Enforcement & Complaints November 20, 2013

An Ethics Complaint Against a Lawyer on a Local EC

Many people think that lawyers make the best ethics commission members. In fact, many ethics codes require that at least some members of an ethics commission be lawyers. However, lawyers are the individuals most likely to have relationships and obligations that conflict with the obligations they ha…

Conflicts of Interest November 18, 2013

The Sale of Special Access to Confidential Information

A recent post on Philadelphia's Parents United for Public Education blog raises an issue that pulls together FOI and confidential information issues. Entitled "Is 'right to know' the new 'pay to play'?", the post is about Parents United's attempt to make public a report that contains a list of Phil…

November 12, 2013

"Frivolity" in Kenosha, WI

"Frivolous" is a word that, I believe, has no place in a government ethics program. A look at an attempt to add it to Kenosha's ethics program shows how, well, frivolous the word is. According to an article in this Sunday's Kenosha (WI) News, a proposed ethics code amendment before the Kenosha coun…

November 12, 2013

Seattle Rejects Public Financing and Embraces District Council Elections

In my estimation, Seattle voters made a big mistake last week. They voted for two related changes to their government. One was a public campaign financing program for citywide council elections. The other was a change from citywide council elections to district council elections, which would leave …

November 8, 2013

EC vs. Corp. Counsel in Honolulu

Many local ethics programs are caught up in an ongoing battle with the city or county attorney. Usually this battle goes on behind the scenes. But in Honolulu, due to an unusual grant of budget oversight to the corporation counsel, this battle has gone public. I devoted a long section of my book Lo…

Local Government Practice October 30, 2013

The Philadelphia Ethics Board's Proposed Gift Regulation

Updated: November 20, 2013 (see below) The gift regulation proposed by Philadelphia's ethics board last week (attached; see below) provides a great opportunity to consider many issues involving gift bans and exceptions. It's a great thing that the ethics board has chosen to provide guidance with re…

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