Special Counsel <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_S._Bennett&quot; target="”_blank”">Robert S. Bennett</a>'s
<a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/files/2010/02/bennett…; target="”_blank”">report</a>
on the District of Columbia council's earmark grants and personal services

Your big brother is a powerful member of city council, and you're just
a deputy city clerk. There's got to be more than this! So you retire,
take your pension of $68,000, and run for state representative, with
all the support your brother and his friends can provide, adding
another $86,000 in salary and the prospect of a second government
pension. Not bad.<br>
<br>
But not enough. You set up a lobbying firm, "to help businesses engage"
with the city, and you let your partner engage with the state, since

It's only been six weeks since <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/campaign-finance-suit-san-diego&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote</a> about a campaign finance suit in
San Diego, filed by the Republican
Party of San Diego County, a former City Council candidate, a
pro-business group, a union PAC, and a pollster. Yesterday the federal

One thing I have scarcely mentioned in my blog are ethical rules
related to a local board or commission when it is acting in a
quasi-judicial manner. I mentioned the common-law conflicts in such
circumstances in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/court-decision-focuses-reasons-behind…; target="”_blank”">a
recent
blog post</a>, as well as the absolute immunity given to the

<b>The Grants of a Conflicted Board of Insiders</b><br>
Sometimes conflicts can cause a city or county serious
problems with such things as state and federal grants. This is what has
happened in <a href="http://www.brockton.ma.us/Default1.aspx&quot; target="”_blank”">Brockton,
MA</a> (pop.

Misuse of government resources, nepotism, transparency, and the
obligations of government attorneys are all issues in litigation over a
village's secret use of a contaminated well for 20% of the village's
water supply, according to <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-0214-crestwood-legal-bi…; target="”_blank”">an
article

Last week, according to <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-daley-city-hiring-20100…; target="”_blank”">an
article
in the Chicago <i>Tribune</i></a>, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley
responded to the conviction of yet another alderman by proposing (i)
that the Inspector General's office oversee the city's hiring program

<br>
I don't usually use examples from Congress, but this one is too good,
and instructive. According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/health/policy/13pharm.html&quot; target="”_blank”">yesterday's
New
York <i>Times<i></a>, Billy Tauzin, when he was a Louisiana congressional
representative, started two hunting clubs, whose memberships included

<b>EC Jurisdiction Over Independent Agencies: The Charter's the Answer</b><br>
In Jacksonville, where City Ethics' president, Carla Miller, is the
ethics officer, the charter revision commission unanimously voted to
give the city's ethics
commission jurisdiction over all the city's independent agencies,
according to <a href="http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=530258">an

Some situations clearly involve a conflict of interest, but are not
dealt with in a local government ethics code. Two issues arise. One is
the quality of the local government ethics code. The other is whether
the code matters at all, if the conflict is clear.<br>
<br>
Such a situation exists with respect to a council member in Bellevue, WA, a Seattle suburb, with the extra twist that the city's ethics code applies to employees, and the state ethics code applies to council members.<br>
<br>