Contractors and Vendors

One of the most frequent mistakes in the drafting of a government ethics code is prohibiting officials from having conflicts of interest. There is nothing wrong with an official having a conflict of interest. There is only something wrong with an official creating a conflict or failing to deal responsibly with a pre-existing conflict. As can be seen in Massachusetts, where such a prohibition has made big waves, the prohibition of having a conflict can cause serious...

Ethics provisions dealing with contracts often ignore subcontractors. This leaves open a big loophole, through which an official can get a big piece of a contract by hiding behind a contractor. This is part of a larger problem: ignoring indirect benefits.

According to an article put up last night on the St. Louis Beacon website, this problem arose this week...

On August 29, the D.C. Board of Ethics and Government Accountability issued an advisory opinion on the important and far too overlooked topic of constituent services (attached; see below). The issuing of advisory opinions that cover more than a very specific set of facts, what I call "general advisory opinions," is itself very valuable (see the section of my book...

It is very damaging when a government official misrepresents ethics advice he has been given. What should an ethics officer or commission do when this happens? In many cases, such advice, especially when it is provided informally, is confidential. When an official makes a public statement about such advice, the EC spokesperson can say nothing but "No comment." This allows the official to say whatever he likes.

This situation was answered skillfully by the Massachusetts Ethics...

One of the worst times to create a conflict of interest is in the midst of labor negotiations. This is what has happened recently in San Francisco, where Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is negotiating contracts with its three unions. There was a short strike in July, and now there are negotiations with an August 4 deadline.

The conflict involves the company for which BART's labor negotiator works, which is itself a large transportation company, specializing in bus transportation. The...

On Friday, New Orleans' Inspector General, who works for the city's ethics board, sent off two letters relating to the auditor for the Orleans Parish sheriff's office. One letter was sent to the state's ethics board, which has jurisdiction over local officials, requesting that it take "appropriate action."...