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 large
parish contractor sent the following e-mail to a council member's aide, who forwarded it to the council member:
“I would like to schedule a meeting with Councilman Spears...
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 council. It turned out
that it wasn't clear whether the ethics ordinance even applied to
elected officials, whether the ethics commission could sanction
officials, or even...
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 from Ethics Task Force in Phoenix"). What the council
did was approve...
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 recommendations for
improvements to the city's ethics program (attached; see below).
Of the five recommendations I made in my testimony to the D.C.
board, only one of them...
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 proposed reforms
and a red-lined copy of the ethics code are attached (see below).
The impetus for these reforms is a matter I discussed in a
blog post last...
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 had invested in a huge hotel and convention
center deal. According to an
article yesterday on the 680 News Radio site, she has been
alleged...