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Local Government Practice May 15, 2008

The Ethics of a City Filing for Bankruptcy

The city of Vallejo, California (pop. 117,000) is about to file for bankruptcy, primarily, it appears, to allow it to void union contracts and have a bankruptcy judge rather than negotiations work out a new contract. Sajan George, an adviser to struggling public entities, has said, "There's a wave of this coming across the U.S. What happens in Vallejo could definitely set a precedent."
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Ethics Codes & Reform May 13, 2008

Above the Law Is Well Below Ethics

How a big-city police chief responds to his commission of an ethics violation is more important than the violation itself. The worst thing he can do is act as if he is above the law, as if ethics laws, not to mention ethics considerations, do not apply to him.

Sadly, Miami's police chief, John Timoney, has done the wrong thing almost every time he had the opportunity.

Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.
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Ethics Codes & Reform May 12, 2008

Law + Character Do Not = Ethics

According to a recent article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth's mayor, Mike Moncrief, made $633,000 last year from the oil and gas business. He also has an interest in several real estate developments. A committee, appointed by the mayor and council, will soon be making recommendations on rules for natural gas drilling and on fees that affect real estate development.
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Local Government Practice May 11, 2008

Form of Government Ethics Issues

Form of government issues are not generally considered to be part of government ethics.  But they are intertwined in important ways.

This can be seen from the New York City Council slush fund scandal.  According to an article in today's New York Times, it began when the Board of Estimate, a finance board in charge of writing the budget, was abolished in the charter revision of 1989.  This gave control of the budget to the Council.
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Enforcement & Complaints May 10, 2008

Political Use of Ethics Enforcement

Ethics complaints are often brought for purely political reasons, and election time is the favorite time for bringing them.

According to an article in yesterday's Flint Journal, a Thetford Township Supervisor brought an ethics complaint before his own board against a township Trustee who is planning to run for his seat this year. The complaint raises a reasonable problem involving a property tax exemption, but it is clearly not a violation of the township's ethics code.
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Transparency & Disclosure May 9, 2008

Legal Advice and Government Accountability

Elizabeth Wolgast’s 1992 book, Ethics of an Artificial Person: Lost Responsibility in Professions and Organizations, raises some very important government ethics questions. I will deal with just one of them here. The term “artificial persons” includes lawyers and government officials who are considered to act in the name of others. Wolgast’s book looks at the problems such artificial persons cause with respect to our ordinary views of such ethical issues as responsibility and accountability. Too often, Wolgast says, lawyers and government officials hide behind their roles.
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May 8, 2008

Tilting at Wind Farms in Northern New York State

Ethics in a small town can be very problematic when one large company with special property interests comes into town. Whether it is a developer, a landfill owner, or other sort of business that seeks to get property or expand its holdings at an inexpensive price, its needs often lead it to tempt individual local government officials or dominate the town's politics. In Franklin County (northeastern New York State), a new sort of business has been causing local governments ethics problems: wind farm companies.
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May 5, 2008

Favoring Friends - The Massachusetts Approach

Everyone knows it’s not right for government officials to favor their friends, but because friendships are so difficult to define, they don’t appear in ethics codes. Relatives can be defined, domestic partners can be defined, business associates can be defined, but not boyfriends or pals or old buddies. This is one of the limitations of dealing with ethics in the form of a law. But the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, which deals with local government as well as state government officials, has found a way to deal with favoritism given to friends.
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Ethics Commissions & Administration April 30, 2008

The Confidentiality of Ethics Proceedings and the Duties This Creates

Confidentiality is a sticky issue in ethics investigations. It appears to be the norm, but many people do not seem to understand why it exists, or what duties it creates. An interesting confidentiality issue arose recently in Beaufort, South Carolina, according to an article in today’s Beaufort Gazette. A former mayoral candidate filed a complaint against the current mayor with the state Ethics Commission.
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