A Model Ethics Advisory Opinion and Links to Major City and State Advisory Opinions

The New York City Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) recently issued an advisory opinion (attached, see below) on the subject of conflicts involving city council discretionary funds, a topic I wrote about last year. This is a model advisory opinion, especially in the way it provides a number of scenarios to which it applies the city's relevant ethics provisions. The opinion goes beyond any single request for advice to provide advice for as great a range of possible situations as the staff could imagine.

This opinion emphasizes the value of advisory opinions that do not limit themselves to the facts of a request. The more guidance an ethics commission can give on a matter, not only to the one requesting guidance, but to other officials who might find themselves in a similar situation, the more valuable an advisory opinion can be.

It's a good idea for ethics commissions and their staff to read the opinions of commissions and ethics officers in the larger cities and counties. Here are links to the advisory opinion pages of some of them, plus to those of states that deal with local government ethics:

Atlanta
Chicago
Denver
Honolulu
King County (WA)
Los Angeles
New York City (check COIB and search for keywords)
Philadelphia
San Antonio
San Diego
Seattle
Alabama
Arkansas (upper right-hand corner)
California
Delaware
Massachusetts
Missouri
Nevada
Ohio
Oregon
Rhode Island
West Virginia

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research, City Ethics
rwechsler@cityethics.org
203-230-2548