Conflicts of Interest

This is the place to discuss the special situation of legislators who are employed by the city, or have members of their household who are employed by the city, and how to handle this conflict. 100(2). Legislators Employed by City A member of the legislative body has a conflict of interest with res…

This is the place to discuss what a conflict of interest is, and how close or what type of a relationship an official or employee must have with an individual or entity that has an interest, for that interest to be seen as conflicting with that official or employee's obligations to the public inter…

This is the place to share opinions about and experiences with waivers and exclusions (or "exemptions"). Waivers can be a controversial topic, so arguments for and against, and especially good and bad experiences with waivers will be helpful to communities considering them. Another important topic …

This is the place to discuss penalties involving contracts. There are two in the Model Code: automatic voiding of contracts upon a finding of a violation of the Code, and debarment of persons and entities from entering into other contracts with the municipality after violating the Code. Do you thin…

Contracting is one of the municipal ethics issues that is most often overlooked as an ethics issue. One reason is that the laws governing competitive bidding are often at the state level. Another is that municipal competitive bidding laws often appear outside codes of ethics (often because they are…

There are municipal ethics issues that will never find their way into any ethics code, but which should certainly be covered in ethics training courses. Many of these issues involve the relationship between government and businesses. If there were no money to be made in and through municipal govern…

I would like to hear how many people have had similar experiences to the one I will describe below, and what people think should be done in response. It concerns conflicts of interest, and the way a discussion of them within the context of a particular possible instance can so easily be turned into…

I am interested in getting some feedback on this point: In a recent incident, there was perhaps no legal issue, but there was an undeniable perception that something unethical had occurred. What are your views on the thin red line between these points (i.e. "legal" and "perceived as unethical") Sho…

I saw on the web that Miami-Dade has a "cone of silence" rule (love the name), which prohibits contact with government personnel including elected officials while contract solicitation responses are under evaluation. I would like to hear from or about any other cities that have communication restri…

This story was published on April 6th, 2005 in the Philadelphia Weekly www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=9285 With City Hall in the throes of an FBI probe and Philadelphia's reputation in the dumps, will support for ethics reforms get trashed too? by Gwen Shaffer The first time Richardson Dilw…