<b>Update</b>: January 11, 2011 (see below)<br>
<br>
According to a July 2 unpublished opinion by Judge Flanagan of the Washoe County (NV)
district court, <i>Carrigan v. Commission on Ethics of the State of Nevada</i>
(attached; see below), a
city council member has a first amendment free speech right to vote
where
there is not "an actual, existing conflict of interest." (p. 13)<br>
<br>
Due process also comes into play in the opinion:  "In the

Yesterday, four Pennsylvania state representatives, two from each of
the major parties, announced a proposal to create a public integrity
commission that would have greater powers than the current state ethics
commission, and would jurisdiction over officials at all levels of government.<br>
<br>

According to <a href="http://www.newstribune.com/articles/2010/07/24/politics_and_elections/n…; target="”_blank”">an
article
in the <i>News-Tribune</i></a>, the governor of Missouri recently
signed <a href="http://www.senate.mo.gov/10info/pdf-bill/tat/SB844.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">an
ethics

“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.”<br>
<br>
These are the words of an adviser to congressman Charles Rangel about
why his month-long settlement negotiations with the House Committee on
Standards of Official Conduct broke down.<br>
<br>

In researching a recent ethics complaint in <a href="http://www.myharlingen.us/default.aspx?name=homepage&quot; target="”_blank”">Harlingen,
Texas</a> (pop. 67,000), I came across some disturbing ethics matters. The most disturbing can be seen from <a href="http://www.myharlingen.us/docs/1-DevCorp_092909_regmtg.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">the

<b>Update:</b> October 22, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
Recently, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/political-use-ethics-complaints-and-m…; target="”_blank”">a
blog post</a> on the political use of ethics complaints and the
manipulation of the press. Yesterday, the third circuit court of
appeals effectively, and I think wrongly, disagreed with one of my

If you're a city of a quarter million people with an ethics board that
“has not met in many years and ... is effectively non-existent,”
according to a council member who has proposed a new ethics ordinance,
what do you do?<br>
<br>
Not, I think, what <a href="http://www.cityoffortwayne.org/images/stories/clerk/Introduction_-_July…; target="”_blank”">the
proposed

I hate to see people resign with statements such as this, as typical as they are:
<ul>
While I have been assured that I have violated no existing code,
ordinance or statute, I cannot permit my integrity — and, by
insinuation, Councilwoman Hermann’s — to be attacked.</ul>
Sadly, these are the words of a former Kansas City (MO) ethics

It's important to be careful when it comes to conflicts of interest,
but it's also important not to be <i>too</i> careful. When you're too careful,
you send the wrong message to members of the community and you
miseducate them about government ethics.<br>
<br>
This is what happened this week in my own town of North Haven,
Connecticut.

<br>
There are many ways to get ethics reform going (the Lone Ranger being out of fashion outside of New York State), but the choices are
different in different states, and it's hard to know which one is best
or most practicable for a particular community. <a href="http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-07-13/story/ethics-reform-could…; target="”_blank”">An
article