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Local Government Practice
130 articles

Local Government Practice

Local Government Practice June 12, 2010

The Ethics of Teachers and Politicians

According to an article in yesterday's New York Times, it is coming out that more teachers and school administrators have been involved in cheating on the test scores that may not only give them bonuses, but may determine whether their schools continue to exist. One can argue ad infinitum about the…
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Local Government Practice May 14, 2010

Partisanship of Local Elections and Government Ethics

Is the partisanship of local government elections a government ethics issue? I think it is, partly. The story that sparked my thoughts about this was one from today's New York Times about Mayor Bloomberg's second attempt to turn New York City elections from partisan to nonpartisan. Pro-nonpartisan …
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Local Government Practice May 5, 2010

Personal Ethics vs. Government Ethics

Failure to disclose or to recuse oneself, even when it is not legally required, can lead to some big headaches, as can be seen in Portland, OR, where a city commissioner voted on a grant to a non-profit organization where his girlfriend works. Also interesting in this case is the commissioner's use…
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Local Government Practice May 3, 2010

Legal Ethics vs. Government Ethics

Many government lawyers feel that the rules of professional conduct are sufficient to keep them ethical. Because of this, they sometimes seek to be excluded from an ethics commission's jurisdiction (see a recent blog post) and more often argue that the attorney discipline system takes precedence. A…
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Local Government Practice April 21, 2010

Ethical Behavior As a Team Endeavor

It would be easy to say that politics is a team sport, like football, while ethics is an individual sport, like tennis. But this simply isn't true. Both ethical behavior and unethical behavior can be done as a team. Four years ago, in one of my first and most important blog posts, on ethical failur…
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Local Government Practice March 31, 2010

Vive Les Differences!

One of the biggest differences between unethical conduct and criminal conduct by government officials is the matter of proving intent. For example, a bribe is nothing more than a gift to a government official where it has been proven that the official intentionally took a gift in return for certain…
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Local Government Practice March 31, 2010

A Government Attorney's Discretion

Georgia seems intent on providing an entire course on the ethical obligations of government attorneys. This time it's the obligations of the state's top government attorney, the attorney general. There's also an issue concerning special government attorneys. The governor wants to file a suit to cha…
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Local Government Practice March 11, 2010

Holding Local Government Associations Accountable

Unions are paid for by union members, business associations are paid for by businesses, but local government associations are paid for by taxpayers, not by local governments. And yet while unions represent members, and business associations represent businesses, local government associations repres…
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Local Government Practice February 16, 2010

Defending Officials: Misuse of Office and Who the Client Is

Misuse of government resources, nepotism, transparency, and the obligations of government attorneys are all issues in litigation over a village's secret use of a contaminated well for 20% of the village's water supply, according to an article in Sunday's Chicago Tribune. Here a few questions that a…
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Local Government Practice February 5, 2010

The Perfect Justification for Unethical Conduct

Almost three years ago, I wrote a blog post about the scandal that rocked my town, North Haven, CT. Since then, one of the two arrested department heads, the finance director, was given accelerated rehabilitation (lenient probation) because he turned state's evidence. The other department head, and…
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