Model Code | City Ethics

Ethics Commissions & Administration April 13, 2011

Why Strict Time Periods Are Problematic

When there is a time period in an ethics code investigation or hearing provision, there is always the question: What happens if some event does not take place within the designated time period? Does that mean that the complaint is automatically dismissed? This issue arises due to a Pennsylvania Co…

Ethics Codes & Reform November 19, 2010

How to Bring Contractors Into the Ethics Process

Another interesting ethics matter is raised in the article on the school board member in Santa Clara County (CA), which I discussed earlier today. The DA's office notes that the contractor, for whom the school board member had worked as a subcontractor, had no obligation to disclose the conflict, s…

Ethics Codes & Reform November 13, 2010

Cases from the Salkin Roundup I

Prof. Patricia Salkin, director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School and author of the Law of the Land blog, has published another of her regular roundup of what's been happening recently in the ethics of land use. Her focus is on cases that have gone to court. I will be discussing a f…

Conflicts of Interest September 29, 2010

Staff Members and the Revolving Door

Update: October 15, 2010 (see below) Decision-makers are given too much credit. Most individuals who vote on government matters are non-professionals who are paid little or nothing, and who rarely focus on the matters before their body. They are, therefore, very dependent on staff members who are p…

Conflicts of Interest September 2, 2010

Are Gratuities and Rewards Government Ethics Issues?

Update: September 6, 2010 (see below) For many local government employees, gratuities are the principal way in which an ethics code affects them, because many ethics code prohibit gratuities. But are they really a government ethics issue? In other words, does a government employee, say a sanitation…

Enforcement & Complaints July 26, 2010

Ethics Settlements and Admissions of Wrongdoing

“How he is treated is important. He’s going to fight for his name. Rather than accept language he disagrees with, he would rather fight it out. This is his life.” These are the words of an adviser to congressman Charles Rangel about why his month-long settlement negotiations with the House Committe…

Ethics Codes & Reform June 30, 2010

A Miscellany

Time Limitations on Ethics Proceedings in Louisiana, and Why They're BadThe Louisiana ethics board handles ethics, disclosure, campaign finance, and lobbying for the state and for the state's local governments. It is, like all ethics agencies, understaffed, underfunded, and overstretched. So accord…

Ethics Commissions & Administration May 12, 2010

Partisan Nomination of Ethics Commission Members

I was reminded today that Sen. Arlen Specter, who recently switched from the Republican party to the Democratic party, voted against Elena Kagan's appointment as solicitor-general. He now appears likely to support her appointment to the Supreme Court. This raised the issue in my mind: is it ever r…

Ethics Codes & Reform April 23, 2010

"Interest" vs. "Benefit"

In my most recent blog post, I pointed out how vague the concept of an "interest" is for most people. I would like to discuss this problem further, because I think it is the cause of much misunderstanding, as well as weaknesses in ethics code drafting. Ethics codes are essentially conflict of inter…

Conflicts of Interest April 13, 2010

Preferential Treatment and Zoning Enforcement

What do you do when an official discriminates against you by sicking a local government inspector on you? This question was raised by David Owens in a post on the NC Local Government Law Blog. Owens' answer is that (at least in North Carolina), unless you can show evidence of a pattern of conscious…

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