City Related | City Ethics

Ethics Commissions & Administration October 11, 2012

Advice on Ethics Advice Falls on Deaf Ears

Last week, a resident from one of the towns next to mine (Wallingford, CT) called me for advice regarding his request for an advisory opinion. The request involved the appropriateness of council members affiliated with a church participating in a matter that involved funding for renovation of a wal…

Ethics Commissions & Administration October 8, 2012

The Limits of an EC's Jurisdiction: A Situation in San Francisco

Update: October 10, 2012 (see below) So far, I have ignored this year's most famous local ethics proceeding, against San Francisco sheriff Ross Mirkarimi. The reason I ignored it is the reason I am writing about it now: I think the proceeding should have been dismissed because the sheriff's miscon…

Conflicts of Interest October 5, 2012

Putting Government Officials and Employees into Conflict Situations

It was very refreshing to hear Ann Arbor council member Steven Kunselman, in an interview with Jeanine DeLay of A2Ethics, an Ann Arbor-based ethics organization, talking openly, honestly, and intelligently about some local government ethics situations. The two situations he spoke about are situatio…

October 3, 2012

Chicago's Mayor Replaces Entire Ethics Board

When a mayor replaces an entire ethics commission, it usually means that he is taking over control of the city's ethics program, to protect himself and his allies. This doesn't appear to be the case in Chicago, where today Mayor Emmanuel replaced ethics board members whose terms had ended or were a…

September 28, 2012

San Antonio Officials Mishandle the Mishandling of a Conflict Situation

According to an article in the San Antonio Express-News this week, San Antonio's deputy city manager is concerned about whether he mishandled a conflict situation. It involved his participation on a bid review committee for a $300 million contract for an expansion to the city's convention center. W…

Ethics Codes & Reform September 24, 2012

An Analysis of League City TX's Ethics Program

This is the first of a series of looks at the ethics programs of smaller cities, towns, and counties. These local governments have the resources to create an independent, comprehensive ethics program, but they rarely do. It is valuable to look at both the good ideas and the bad ideas in the program…

September 19, 2012

An Interest Discovery (sic)

It took a law student doing a summer job, but there is finally confirmation of what I have been saying for a long time: normal people do not understand the word "interest" as it is commonly used by lawyers in the government ethics context. It was for this reason that I rarely use the word "interes…

September 18, 2012

An Ethics Pledge Proposal Turns Ugly

Local government ethics can quickly become an ugly circus when officials don't really understand it. A good example occurred in Royal Oak, Michigan last week, when a city commissioner who had recently pointed out a legitimate conflict situation involving a fellow commissioner took an "ethics pledge…

Conflicts of Interest September 14, 2012

Appearance Is Nothing to Shrug At

According to Dan Lett's column in the Winnipeg Free Press yesterday, when a conflict of interest issue arises with respect to Winnipeg's mayor, his first response is to shrug his shoulders. If that works, that's the end of the matter. These conflict issues include: In March 2005, the mayor's busine…

Conflicts of Interest September 12, 2012

When a Job Is Given to an EC Member

Now that I am no longer administrator of the New Haven Democracy Fund, a public campaign financing program, I can once again write about ethics issues that arise in New Haven. An interesting issue arose when, according to an article in Monday's New Haven Register, a member of the city's ethics boar…

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