Ethics Reform Testimony in D.C. and Tallahassee
It would be really helpful if people could find recommendations for ethics reform all in one place, but this rarely happens. Ethics task forces and ethics commissions that ask for such recommendations...
View ArticleIntent and Criminal Penalties for Ethics Violations
I begin the "Intent" section of my book Local Government Ethics Programs by noting that, "One of the distinguishing aspects of government ethics is the fact that it does not deal with or require a...
View ArticleThe Educational Opportunities of a Local Ethics Case in Massachusetts
A settlement in a Massachusetts ethics proceeding can be used as an educational opportunity in several ways. According to a February 28 press release from the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, which has...
View ArticleWhy Are Council and School Board Seats Incompatible?
“Incompatible offices” is a form of conflict that is usually left out of ethics codes. One reason is that there is a common law prohibition against officials holding incompatible offices. But whether...
View ArticleQuote of the Day
“We have a system that only catches morons.”—Unnamed New York state legislator and ethics reformer, quoted in Gail Collins' New York Times column today. The "system" being referred to is our criminal...
View ArticleA Miscellany
Applicant Disclosure Is Good for Officials If Ontario or Mississauga required broad applicant disclosure, Mississauga's mayor would not be in court this week arguing that she didn't know that her son...
View ArticleProposed Ethics Reforms in San Antonio
This week, San Antonio's mayor and city attorney proposed a number of reforms to the city's ethics code and campaign finance regulations. I will deal here only with the ethics reforms. A summary of the...
View ArticleD.C. Ethics Board's Flawed Recommendations for Reform
In January, I wrote a blog post about the District of Columbia ethics board's first public forum seeking recommendations for ethics reform. On April 17, the ethics board published a report that makes...
View ArticleCurrent Ethics Reform II - Phoenix
In June, the Phoenix council took a step toward ethics reform, based on the recommendations of a task force (I critiqued the task force recommendations in an April post entitled"Disappointing Report...
View ArticleEthics Reform IV - Allen County and Columbus, IN et al
Allen County, IN According to an article in the Journal Gazette, Allen County, IN, which includes Fort Wayne, amended its ethics ordinance after a complaint was brought against a member of the county...
View ArticleProblems Arising from a Bribery Case in Jefferson Parish, LA
Several interesting issues arise from a recent ethics case in Jefferson Parish, a suburb of New Orleans with about 430,000 people. According to an article in the Advocate yesterday, an employee of a...
View ArticleSummer Reading: Beyond Culture
Edward T. Hall's classic book, Beyond Culture (Anchor Books, 1976), is not a government ethics book. But a lot of the wisdom in this brilliant book can be applied to our field. It's hard to describe...
View ArticleA City Land Sale That Requires a Broader Investigation
Here's an interesting case study from Hartford, CT. The facts come from an NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters post from Friday and a report of the city's Chief Auditor dated June 27, 2013. In October...
View ArticleDealing Responsibly with an Ethics Violation
Here's a what-not-to-do scenario of a sort that is too rarely included in ethics training. And yet it's one that could save a lot of officials, as well as ethics programs, a great deal of trouble, and...
View ArticleA New D.C. Ethics Reform Bill
On April 17, the District of Columbia ethics board filed recommendations for ethics reform with the council (see my blog post on the recommendations). Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie has introduced a...
View ArticleNo Enforcement Against the Complicit in a California Case
Court decisions, especially when combined with criminal enforcement of ethics violations, can be very harmful to local government ethics. The court in a Monterey County case involving a serious §1090...
View ArticleThe Need for Institutional Checks on Mishandling Conflicts
Six years ago, I wrote a blog post on apology (including full disclosure) in the medical context. Today's New York Times'"Invitation to a Dialogue" letter from a hospital executive takes this issue a...
View ArticleA Florida Legislative Committee Calls for the Suspension of the Palm Beach...
Toward the end of a video of the November 4 meeting of the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, the committee vice-chair says that the testimony he heard was very "troubling." I felt the same...
View ArticleA New Sort of Regional EC in Utah
In early 2009, I started out a blog post, "Type 'ethics' into the search line at utah.gov, and all that comes up is Archery Ethics Course Online." That is no longer true. In fact, the state legislature...
View Article"Frivolity" in Kenosha, WI
"Frivolous" is a word that, I believe, has no place in a government ethics program. A look at an attempt to add it to Kenosha's ethics program shows how, well, frivolous the word is. According to an...
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