According to an
article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, yesterday former
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin was convicted on 20 of the 21 corruption
charges against him, primarily for bribery, honest services fraud,
and tax fraud.
This hard-fought battle was actually about one thing only, whether
gifts given to the mayor were intended to influence him. From a...
Since most local ethics commissions do not have the authority to
initiate their own investigations or draft their own complaints
(although in many cases this authority is not expressly withheld),
there is a special role that former EC members, especially chairs,
can play: filing complaints that no one else will file.
Mike
DeBonis's article in the Washington Post last week describes an operatic
ethics matter, with several twists and complications, with dramatic
cries of innocence mixed with scathing accusations of guilt. The
article is certainly more exciting than this blog post...
This is the last of four blog posts on Florida
Senate Bill 606 (attached; see below), one of the worst ethics
reform bills I have ever read.
The Florida League of Cities was deeply involved in drafting these
supposed ethics reforms, which I criticize in my last three blog
posts. The question needs to be asked: Was the League acting
for its members as officials representing the public interest or...
Florida
Senate Bill 606 (attached; see below) is one of the worst ethics reform bills I have
ever read. But it is far worse than the words it consists of. What
makes it worse is that, with respect to laws that affect local officials, it is largely the work of the Florida League of Cities
(this was confirmed to me by representatives of both the League and
state senator Jeff Clemens, the bill's sponsor). It is...
Who should be allowed to file an ethics complaint? Certainly any
citizen of the jurisdiction. But what about multiple citizens of the
jurisdiction? Should an ethics commission exclude a complaint from
them?
This is what happened recently in Brookfield, CT, according to an
article in the News-Times. A petition signed by a few hundred
people in town was...