Ethics Codes & Reform

State or local ethics laws, state or local ethics training, state or local disclosure forms, state or local ethics enforcement? This is probably the biggest issue in local government ethics. And it's a very complicated one, which I have only rarely dealt with. There are good (and bad) arguments on …

Happy Fifth Birthday, Atlanta Ethics Office! The Ethics Office has celebrated its birthday with a 40-page report on its first five years of existence. It is well worth looking at. The report is entitled Ethics Is the Only Deal, from something Mayor Shirley Franklin said:  “Ethics is a big deal. . .…

Recently, the Jackson County (MO) county legislature decided to exclude not only county legislature members from its new ethics code, but also county attorneys. This exception is hidden square in the middle of a 58-page code: This chapter applies to all public servants, as the term is defined in th…

In many states without state enforcement of local government ethics, the compromise position pushed particularly by local government officials is to have the state mandate local ethics codes, but let local governments decide what's right for them. The motto of this position is, "One size does not f…

One of the biggest obstacles to ethics reform in some U.S. states and Canadian provinces is the possibility of state enforcement of local ethics. For example, in Connecticut, there has been talk for years at the state level about either having state enforcement or state requirements. Even though it…

Everyone knows the three lies jokes. Every topic has its three lies, and the third one is the punch line. Unfortunately, in government ethics there aren't any punch lines, but there are lies, or at least common rhetoric that isn't true, what I will refer to as "untruths." Those who believe in effec…

The conclusion of an op-ed column in today's Sarasota Herald-Tribune about the mess in Venice that I wrote about yesterday made me realize that I had not yet written about one of the most important problems in government ethics:  process vs. substance. A quick recap: this evening, the Venice counci…

A favorite ploy in local government ethics is for a council to vote for an ethics code that includes an ethics commission, and then either not actually appoint members to the commission or, when they resign, not fill their seats, so that there is, effectively, no enforcement mechanism. But a legisl…

Type "ethics" into the search line at utah.gov, and all that comes up is Archery Ethics Course Online. In response to what are referred to in Utah as last year's "ethics wars," a new legislative ethics bill has been drafted. What is interesting for local government ethics is how focused the new bil…

I recommend an essay by Donald Menzel from the October issue of PM, the magazine of the International City-County Management Association (ICMA), entitled "Strengthening Ethical Governance in Local Governments." Menzel is a former president of the American Society for Public Administration, author o…