Ethics Codes & Reform

Whistleblower provisions are extremely important to government ethics, but poorly worded ethics provisions can undermine even the best whistleblower provisions, especially in unscrupulous hands. One such ethics provision is the confidential information provision. A nurse at a Winker County, TX hosp…

Below are the opinions of two candidates running in a primary for a seat on the Effingham County, GA commission, which perfectly present two very different views of local government ethics, one pseudo-religious (people are good or bad), the other professional (people need guidance): Question from E…

There is an intriguing blog post on Rick Hasen's Election Law Blog this morning, entitled, Is Reading a Legal Blog in One's Field Now Part of the Due Diligence of Lawyers? This is not the wishful thinking of a blogger, but rather a response to the following passage in the 11th Circuit's Scott v. Ro…

There are many ways to get ethics reform going (the Lone Ranger being out of fashion outside of New York State), but the choices are different in different states, and it's hard to know which one is best or most practicable for a particular community. An article in Tuesday's Florida Times-Union sho…

There's an interesting issue at the heart of a judicial inquiry into possible misconduct by the mayor of Mississauga, Ontario. The council sought the inquiry to “investigate any supposed breach of trust or other misconduct of a Member of Council, an employee of the municipality or person having a c…

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…

Honesty, although central to ethics, is not central to government ethics. The reason for this is that honesty, or falsity, is so complex, it is almost impossible to define or enforce. And first amendment freedom of speech places so many limitations on government regulation of expression short of li…

Time Limitations on Ethics Proceedings in Louisiana, and Why They're BadThe Louisiana ethics board handles ethics, disclosure, campaign finance, and lobbying for the state and for the state's local governments. It is, like all ethics agencies, understaffed, underfunded, and overstretched. So accord…

Most local governments leave open meeting and public records matters to the state. But often the slowness and expense of the state enforcement process, as well as weaknesses in state law (e.g., too short a period for noticing agendas, vague guidelines on filling FOI requests), can mean that open me…

New York State's new comptroller (see an earlier blog post about the prior comptroller's ethical problems) has recently produced a report based on an audit of 31 New York local governments and a survey of many more (see the press release for an overview). The 26-page report is entitled Ethics Overs…