City Ethics | Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Resources & Learning September 12, 2012

Summer Reading: What Money Can't Buy II

This second of two posts on Michael Sandel's new book, What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (Farrar Straus, 2012), includes a few fascinating takes on different aspects of government ethics, including preferential treatment, municipal marketing, skyboxes, and the sensitive topic of ina…

Conflicts of Interest September 12, 2012

When a Job Is Given to an EC Member

Now that I am no longer administrator of the New Haven Democracy Fund, a public campaign financing program, I can once again write about ethics issues that arise in New Haven. An interesting issue arose when, according to an article in Monday's New Haven Register, a member of the city's ethics boar…

September 11, 2012

Phoenix Mayor Forms Ethics Task Force

According to an official press release, yesterday the mayor of Phoenix announced the formation of an Ethics Review Ad Hoc Task Force, with eleven members appointed by the mayor, to be chaired by former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley and staffed by the city’s law and human resources department…

Resources & Learning September 11, 2012

Summer Reading: What Money Can't Buy I

Harvard professor Michael Sandel's new book What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (Farrar Straus, 2012) has a lot to say about the effect of commercial, market values on American culture, including on American government. Sandel's book focuses on "the expansion of markets, and of market…

Enforcement & Complaints September 10, 2012

The Real-Life Results of a Lack of Independence and Transparency in an Ethics Program

Last week, I wrote blog posts about how Chicago's ethics program needs more independence and more transparency than the Ethics Reform Task Force recommended. I couldn't have imagined better evidence to support my criticisms than what has been happening recently with the New York state Joint Commiss…

September 7, 2012

Chicago Task Force Second Report V — Some Bad Ideas and Missed Chances

The worst recommendation in the Chicago ethics task force's second report (attached; see below) involves the role it wants the corporation counsel to play in the city's ethics program: prosecuting attorney. I feel strongly that a corporation counsel's office should play no role in an ethics program…

September 7, 2012

Chicago Task Force Second Report IV — Confidentiality and False Information

Although the Chicago Ethics Reform Task Force, in its first report, came out strongly in favor of more transparency in government, in its second report it came out strongly in favor of what it calls "confidentiality" in the ethics program. I call it what the public calls it: "secrecy." When an Ethi…

Ethics Codes & Reform September 6, 2012

Why Local Party Leaders Should Be Part of a Local Ethics Program

A front-page article in yesterday's New York Times provides an excellent portrait of a government official who, although doing much good work, made it all about himself and those with whom he has special relationships. Although his misconduct caught up with him only when it took the form of the all…

Ethics Commissions & Administration September 6, 2012

Chicago Task Force Second Report III — Ethics Program Independence

Ethics program independence is, as far as I'm concerned, the single most important issue in ethics reform. Nothing gains the public's trust as much as an ethics program that is independent from the officials over whom it has jurisdiction. Ethics program independence means that officials do not part…

Ethics Commissions & Administration September 5, 2012

A Miscellany

Yet Another Mayoral Charity Mess, This Time in Toronto According to an article in the Toronto Star this week and another in the Globe and Mail yesterday, today Toronto's mayor will appear in court "to explain why he participated in a council debate about whether he should return $3,150 in improperl…

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