City Related | City Ethics

Ethics Codes & Reform June 18, 2007

Where Ethics Provisions Should Appear and Not Appear

What happened recently in Colorado makes it clear that a state constitution is not the right place for ethics laws. Last November, an amendment to the state constitution was approved by voters, prohibiting state and local officials from accepting any gift of over $50 from any 'person.' The state At…

April 30, 2007

The Making of a Model Website and Blog in My Hometown

I've been on a sort of work-leave the last two weeks. My town, North Haven, Connecticut (pop. 24,000), has been a mess for a long time, but few people have cared enough to pay attention, and those who criticize the administration are personally attacked and delegitimized. It was my town's mess, and…

April 18, 2007

Memphis: At the Top of the Bottom

Memphis has been the scene of some serious corruption in the last few years. And for years before that, as well, although they say that in the old days the corruption was institutionalized, so that there were rules about how you could and could not take advantage of your office. In round numbers, i…

Ethics Codes & Reform April 15, 2007

Spelling It Out

Many areas of ethics have little overlap with municipal ethics. But one rather specialized area that I came across has some interesting applications: the ethics of casting love spells. According to an article in about.com, 'the standard position among Pagans is that you should never do spells to ma…

April 12, 2007

Case Study of the Day

According to an article in today's Louisville Courier-Journal, there is a dispute in Jeffersonville, Kentucky that is worth taking a look at. The mayor has accused the city board of ethics' attorney of having a conflict of interest and is urging that he be fired. The conflict involves support for t…

Ethics Commissions & Administration April 11, 2007

Politicians on Ethics Commissions

Having politicians on the Queensbury, NY Ethics Board has created a mess. According to an article in the Glen Falls PostStar, one council member brought a complaint against another council member, and when the ethics board found that the respondent should have recused himself on a vote, the respond…

Ethics Codes & Reform April 11, 2007

Who's in Charge? - An Introduction to Writing and Revising An Ethics Code

Who should be in charge of writing and revising municipal ethics codes? Generally, ethics codes are the work of a mayor or a council, or sometimes they both jockey for the position of being seen as more ethical (this is especially true when a council member is considering a run for mayor). Sometime…

April 9, 2007

Budgetary Hijinks

Below is an op-ed piece I wrote this week for the North Haven Post about the unethical conduct involved in my town's budget process. Nothing was done illegally or in violation of the town's mediocre ethics code. My question here is, What can be done about this sort of deviousness, which most town r…

Local Government Practice April 9, 2007

Circled Wagons: Loyalty and Municipal Ethics

I was inspired to take a different point of view of municipal ethics while reading Charles Taylor's review of Jonathan Lear's new book, Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books. Please bear with me as I describe the book before I s…

Resources & Learning April 5, 2007

Logical Fallacies III - The Straw Man Wears Camouflage

When an official makes an Ad Hominem attack, everyone realizes there is an attack. And when an official makes an Ad Populum defense, everyone realizes that there is a defense. But when an official sets up a Straw Man, the situation isn't so clear. It's not an attack or a defense, but a response to …

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