Local Government Practice

Explaining a political decision on the basis of government ethics, when that really isn't the reason, can lead to government ethics reform made on the basis of politics. That's what appears to have happened in Boerne (TX), a small "city" of 6,000 residents outside San Antonio.

As I have noted again and again, there is no more difficult, conflicted role than that of a local government attorney. In small towns, there's not a lot that can be done. But in cities and counties, there are several things that can be done to lessen the local government attorney's conflicts.

A judicial opinion is apparently not enough to put an end to local government officials using the excuse that the local government attorney told them participation in a matter is legal.

It should come as little surprise to people involved in local government that a New York Times article about bullying among ten- and eleven-year-olds has a great deal of relevance. I said for years about my town's government that its major participants were like ten-year-old boys on a playground, taunting, playing games of intimidation, spreading false rumors, keeping communal secrets, excluding whoever doesn't go along, and staying loyal to those in control so that they aren't excluded themselves

Booms and busts are common not only in a financial system. They are also common in government ethics.

Booms are when things are good, when local politicians seem worthy of our trust. Busts are when we find out that things aren't what they seemed. In other words, when there's a scandal.

One of the principal reasons I have focused my energies on local government ethics is that most people learn their government ethics at the local level. What they see people doing on councils and zoning boards, they do on state legislatures and commissions, and then again at the federal level.

But things go the other way, as well. Disdain for government ethics at the state level can affect the ethics environments of that state's local governments. This appears to be happening in Missouri.

Update: February 5, 2010 (see below)

Alaska and a small utility district in Texas. Who would have thought they could have anything in common. But they do: representation without taxation.

I have treated the legislative immunity litigation in Rhode Island as the least relevant to other states and to local governments, because the ethics program was set up pursuant to a special constitutional convention. But an amicus brief filed this week by Common Cause of RI and the League of Women Voters of RI made me realize that a constitutional convention or, at the local level, a charter revision process, is a valuable alternative to consider for creating an independent ethics commission.

Lawyers are supposed to zealously represent their clients. After all, Canon 7 of the ABA Code of Professional Responsibility says, "A lawyer should represent a client zealously within the bounds of the law." This requirement applies as much to government lawyers as it does to private lawyers, right?

The ethics provision that is probably most consistently violated is the one about political activity in city or county hall.

The City Ethics Model Code Project version reads as follows: