Lobbyists | City Ethics

Resources & Learning February 23, 2016

Announcing the Book "The Regulation of Local Lobbying"

At last, I have put up online a final version of what has turned out to be a separate book, The Regulation of Local Lobbying. This free 342-page resource has three parts. The first part explains what local lobbying is, how it differs from lobbying at the state and, especially, the federal levels, a…

November 16, 2015

Quotes of the Day

“I think people should know right from wrong, and if folks are going to do something they’re not supposed to, they’re going to do it. If people are calling up commissioners at night on their personal cellphones, I have no idea about it. … If I knew something was going on, I would go directly to (Co…

Transparency & Disclosure August 15, 2014

There Is No Reason to Leave Principals Out of the Lobbying Disclosure Process

Most people believe that lobbyists are guns hired to influence government officials, and most lobbying laws reflect this by applying only to those who lobby, not to the clients for whom they lobby. Unlike most laws, lobbying laws focus on agents rather than their principals. This problem extend bey…

Transparency & Disclosure July 25, 2014

Lobbying Subject Disclosure

When a lobbying code requires that lobbyists report "specific lobbying issues" or "the subjects on which they have lobbied," what exactly is required? The best approach is to include more specific language in the disclosure section, such as "information sufficient for an ordinary member of the publ…

Resources & Learning May 15, 2014

Spring Reading: Alan Rosenthal on Lobbying II

This is the second post on Alan Rosenthal's The Third House: Lobbyists and Lobbying in the States (CQ Press, 1993). This post focuses on the importance of connections over influence, the role of money and constituents in local lobbying, and local lobbyists as relatively unprofessional, and what tha…

Ethics Codes & Reform May 14, 2014

An Example of Why Towns Need Lobbying Codes

Small towns don't need lobbying registration, because no lobbying of any consequence occurs there. Small towns don't need lobbying registration, because no lobbying of any consequence occurs there. Say it often enough — as local government and lobbying associations do — and people believe it's true…

Ethics Codes & Reform May 9, 2014

Including Subcontract Lobbyists in a Lobbying Code

One of the areas where government ethics laws are weakest is the indirect relationship, such as when a gift is given not to an official, but to an official's spouse or child; an official's business relationship is not with a developer, but with the owner of the developer's parent; an official's aid…

March 24, 2014

An Aussie Editorial on Insider Lobbyists

Worth reading is an op-ed piece Saturday in the Canberra Times by Jack Waterford, the paper's editor-at-large. With a title you'd never see in an American paper — Weaning Players Off the Public Teat — Waterford takes a very frank approach to the revolving door between government and lobbying. Water…

February 4, 2014

First vs. Second Amendment Controversy in Kansas

A dispute in Kansas raises the question: which takes precedence, the First Amendment (free speech) or the Second Amendment? On July 1, 2013, a Kansas state law became effective that prohibited the use of state funds to pay for promotion or lobbying on gun control legislation or regulation at any g…

Resources & Learning January 16, 2014

Winter Reading: The Ethics of Lobbying

In preparation for the chapter on lobbying that I'm working on, I just finished reading a 2002 book entitled The Ethics of Lobbying from the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University (Georgetown UP). It's an excellent introduction to a number of issues involved in lobbying of the federa…

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