The Jacksonville Daily Record today published a story covering the first ethics training since the new code revisions were ratified by Council on Tuesday last week. "Miller instructed the Council staff not to get too bogged down in the technicalities of the law, but to adopt an overall ethical mind set to help guide their decision-making."

I've just finished reading a book called Illicit by Moises Naim, about the trafficking of everything from people and drugs to artworks and counterfeit DVDs . One of the things Naim focuses on is why governments have so much trouble putting a dent into any of these types of trafficking. The principal reason is the structure of relationships. Government bureaucracies lose out to increasingly flexible networks of individuals. In the municipal ethics world, the situation is similar, but even worse outside the larger cities.