Conflicts of Interest

It was exciting to see someone who made her reputation as a government ethics advocate named to the Republican ticket. But it was very troubling to read how she handled a recent revolving door matter. Also, what she did and said made me realize there is a hole in the City Ethics Model Code Project'…

According to a recent article in the Daily Sentinel, a Mesa County (CO) Commissioner says that he is running for re-election on his energy-industry experience (he is a principal of an energy services company that contracts with local oil and gas companies). Energy appears to be a principal industry…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has come up with a new defense of a potential conflict of interest: "I'm investing in something I believe in." What she was investing in, as "part of an entrepreneurial package," as she said on yesterday's Meet the Press, according to a partial transcript, was T. Boone Pi…

A conflict controversy in Benson, Arizona shows how important participation can be where there is a conflict, even when an official does not vote. According to an article in the San Pedro Valley News-Sun, the mayor was in escrow to purchase property for which he was seeking to (and successfully did…

Ted Stevens has been indicted for falsely reporting over $250,000 in services he received from an oil company that renovated his home. He denies the charges. Whether or not he's guilty of these charges, he is certainly guilty of a conflict of interest that plagues politicians at all levels of gover…

The New York State Commission on Public Integrity released a report yesterday on the allegations relating to the Spitzer Administration's attempts to gather and make public the travel abuses of the Senate Majority Leader, in order to tarnish his reputation. See the New York Times article. There are…

According to a recent article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the chair of one of the city's economic development commissions made an unusual deal with, and a half-million-dollar instant profit from (the purchase and sale transactions were filed at the same time), the commission three years before …

You know you're in trouble when a grand jury foreman says about you, "They need an independent organization to be an oversight ..., not just the grand jury doing it once every few years." Of course, the "they" here are local government agencies:  five community college districts in San Diego County…

[This blog entry has been substantially changed based on a response from the Phoenix City Manager, who provided information about the reasons for the City Attorney's position and the relationship of the City Attorney with the mayor.] Phoenix's City Attorney determined, according to an article in th…

According to a New York Times article last week, hundreds of lawyers in New York State who have done consulting work for local school districts allowed themselves to be listed as part-time employees and allowed themselves to be enrolled in the school districts' pension systems. According to an arti…