Last November, I wrote a
long blog post examining an important general advisory opinion
from the District of Columbia's ethics commission on the subject of
constituent services. Through a list of general considerations, a look at relevant laws,...
According to an
editorial yesterday in the Luzerne County (PA) Citizens Voice,
the Luzerne County council, on advice of the county
attorney, is planning to hold an executive session tomorrow to
discuss changes to its ethics code. The editorial says it would be wrong to hold an executive session.
The county attorney's reasoning is that the changes...
These are not annual disclosures, but mostly disclosures of gift
offers, accepted and rejected. There are dozens of them for 2012 and
2013, and 9 already for 2014. It's...
The draft of Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout's new essay, "The
Forgotten Law of Lobbying," which will appear in Election Law
Journal, looks at the history of how American courts have viewed
lobbying. This history provides a valuable perspective on lobbying,
making it more clear what it is about lobbyists that attracts bad feelings.
This week, the Broward County (FL) inspector general filed a
Review of the Existing Ethics Structure (attached; see below) of the countywide
ethics program that he oversees, and which came into being via
charter amendments overwhelmingly approved by the county's voters in late 2010.
The 21-page report focuses on a two-part reform recommendation: (1) an...
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...