County Related | City Ethics

Ethics Commissions & Administration August 9, 2010

The Tough Way to Revive a Moribund Ethics Commission

What do you do when an ethics commission is moribund? Sadly, few people know and few people care. That is the norm. Rarely does an official complain publicly, "I have no one to give me good ethics advice." She just goes to the city or county attorney, or makes the decision herself. Rarely does anyo…

August 6, 2010

Yet Another Underhanded Attempt to Water Down the Broward County Ethics Commission's New Ethics Code

Update: August 9, 2010 (see below) You've got to hand it to them: Broward County (FL) commissioners don't give up. Some of them have fought and fought against the prospect of having a new ethics code, written by the county ethics commission. August 10 is the deadline by which they must either appr…

Enforcement & Complaints August 4, 2010

Intimidation — The Worst Offense in Government Ethics

Updates: August 4 and 9, 2010 (see below) I was just saying to someone the other day that the worst offenses in local government ethics do not involve money. The worst offenses in local government ethics involve intimidation, which causes people to lose their peace of mind, their reputations, and t…

Conflicts of Interest July 15, 2010

Not Dealing Responsibly with Conflicts Can Lead to Litigation and Overturning of Board Action

A failure to deal responsibly with one's conflicts of interest has ramifications beyond the loss of public trust, and all the serious problems that arise from this loss. This failure can also lead to litigation and the overturning of actions by local government officials. A good example of this can…

Ethics Codes & Reform July 11, 2010

Poor Draftmanship and Poor Ethics

Note: I completely rewrote this post after Mark Davies set me straight about the state law on which disclosure forms an official must file. Poor draftsmanship of ethics codes can cause serious ethical problems. This is certainly true of New York Municipal Law §811(1)(b), which put Suffolk County (N…

July 9, 2010

Lots of Wrongs, Little Right

How many wrongs does it take to make a right? According to a Sun-Sentinel article, a county commissioner in Broward County, home of Ft. Lauderdale, resigned on Tuesday after being arrested on seven counts of unlawful compensation (§838.016(1)) for ‘‘improperly advocating for, and benefiting from, n…

July 7, 2010

Palm Beach County Update

Things are moving along well with the Palm Beach County ethics initiative, which I've written about in earlier blog posts (1 2). An inspector general, selected by the ethics commission and two state government attorneys, started work on June 28, according to an article in the Sun-Sentinel. The nex…

June 23, 2010

Harassment and Intimidation by Government Officials — Another Visit to Maricopa County

What do the BP oil spill and local government ethics have in common? Kenneth Feinberg. This week, Feinberg was chosen to work out the BP oil spill claims, and today he is expected to be hired to work out the claims against Maricopa County, home of Phoenix, based on charges of harassment and abuse o…

June 16, 2010

The Broward County Commission Should Not Be Challenging the Constitutionality of a Lobbying Provision

Update: June 18, 2010 (see below) In a memo dated June 14, 2010 (attached; see below), the Broward County (FL) county attorney told the county commission that lobbying provisions in the county ethics commission's proposed ethics code are unconstitutional and, therefore, should either be removed by …

May 19, 2010

A Cook County Ethics Reform Proposal

According to an article in yesterday's Chicago Daily Observer, Cook County commissioner Tony Peraica has proposed a series of improvements to the ethics code. Here's a summary of the proposed amendments, taken from the commissioner's website (there's also a video on the topic): No Cook County emplo…

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