Complaints/ Investigations/Hearings

Gov. Sarah Palin's national fame has brought government ethics complaints to the attention of people who had never paid any attention to them. And the result has, in general, been one of distortion rather than education. The latest news has especially distorted the nation's view of government ethic…

"Investigators, like prosecutors, must understand that the desire to go after big game to garner big headlines may be as unethical as the offenses they are pursuing." This is the central point of a formal statement made by the new chair of the New York State Commission on Public Integrity concernin…

In a  recent blog post, I wrote about the fining of the executive director of Philadelphia's board of ethics for violating confidentiality rules. That blog post focused on dealing responsibly with a possible violation of an ethics code provision (although not actually an ethics provision, but inste…

Local government officials often defend halfway ethics reforms by saying that they're just the beginning, and that something is better than nothing. But halfway reforms are often effectively little more than nothing, especially in the area of enforcement. "Window dressing" is one term for such refo…

It's amazing how quickly a legislature can move when a bill is so embarrassing, the state's major newspaper calls it "Great for unethical public officials. Lousy for taxpayers." How quickly? Same day service. This just happened in Alabama, according to an article in yesterday's Birmingham News, a d…