City Related | City Ethics

March 24, 2007

Louisiana Legislators Sue Ethics Board - Including Dialogue with One of the Legislators

Before I got around to putting up a blog entry on the ethics mess in Louisiana, it took a turn for the worse. What started as two legislators protecting the jobs, respectively, of their father and their brother, has turned into a full-fledged constitutional battle that could undermine the concept o…

Conflicts of Interest March 22, 2007

The Class Exception

No, the class exception does not except classy people from ethics codes. It excepts people from recusing themselves when the interests they have that would be affected by an act or decision are similar to a broad class of people. The biggest class is, of course, taxpayers. Municipal officials can v…

March 20, 2007

Georgia's Aspirational Guidelines

The City Ethics Model Ethics Code includes as an aspirational code the American Society for Professional Administration's (ASPA) Code of Ethics. This is highly unusual, but not unprecedented. One precedent is the Georgia Municipal Association's City of Ethics program, developed in 1999. The Georgia…

Ethics Commissions & Administration March 20, 2007

Ethics Program Ideas from a Small Town in Vermont

Ethics problems and the need for ethics programs are the stuff of cities and, perhaps, larger towns, or so most people think. In small towns, everyone knows everyone else, and people can't get away with unethical conduct. And as for corruption, there simply aren't enough zeros in the town's budget.…

Ethics Codes & Reform March 19, 2007

Logical Fallacies II - The Ad Populum Defense

Another logical fallacy commonly used by municipal officials is the opposite of the Ad Hominem Attack: the Ad Populum ('[appeal] to the people') Defense. The typical Ad Populum Defense is 'Everybody does it.' There are two simple responses to this. One is, 'How do you know what everybody else does?…

Conflicts of Interest March 15, 2007

Double-Dipping: Two Ways It Works ... and Hurts the Public

Double-dipping occurs when someone holds two government jobs, usually at two different levels of government. This is not legal in many states, and for a good reason. It sets up many possible conflicts of interest, not the least of which is that when you're doing one job, you're not doing the other.…

Local Government Practice March 15, 2007

How Swift Growth Can Undermine Local Government Ethics

The highest median income in 2005, and the fastest-growing county in the United States between 2000 and 2005. How does that translate in terms of local government ethics? Sadly, not very well. The county is Loudoun in Virginia (principal town: Leesburg), not far from Washington, D.C. Although the i…

March 13, 2007

North Carolina Enters the Dark Ages

North Carolina's 2006 state ethics reform turned out the lights, according to an article in yesterday's Charlotte Observer. The new system provides that there will be no public hearings before the new state ethics commission unless the accused asks for one. In many cases, when a case is dismissed o…

Conflicts of Interest March 13, 2007

Charitable Fundraising as an End Run Around Ethics Laws

Lobbyists, lawmakers, and charitable fundraising form a triangle that is both virtuous and harmful. Community leaders like to be identified with charitable groups, and charitable groups like to be identified with community leaders. It's a natural combination. But what is not natural, or even easy t…

Conflicts of Interest March 10, 2007

Municipal Attorneys' Conflicting Obligations: A Case Study

Here's a difficult case involving a board of education's attorney. The board of education in a wealthy, medium-sized Connecticut town is represented by a large law firm that represents 80 boards of education across the state (half the state's total). That same firm is representing a developer that …

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