I've been remiss at covering the complex battles that have gone on in
and around the San Francisco ethics commission. I did, however, start a piece in
August 2009, which I have appended to this one, with an update.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2010/02/10/joe-lynn-memorial-to…; target="”_blank”">an

Time is a very important element of conflicts of interest. Some
conflicts simply exist, but others either occur suddenly or suddenly
become relevant.<br>
<br>
For example, an official can have a piece of property for twenty years
and then suddenly the owner of a neighboring piece of property asks the local
government to help turn it into something that would significantly raise the
value of the official's property.
That's an easy to problem to deal
with.<br>
<br>

It's been almost two years since the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/nyregion/28council.html&quot; target="”_blank”">New
York <i>Times</i> broke the story</a> on the abuses of New York City council
earmarks slush fund, which totaled about $50 million a year. This week, the
council member featured in the <i>Times</i> article was expelled from the

Some lawyers abuse or misrepresent the lawyer-client privilege and
client confidentiality to protect their own unethical conduct. But no
one does it better than elected government
officials who also happen to be lawyers, and have the ability to draft ethics laws.<br>
<br>

The ethics war in San Diego is heating up. It has escalated from elected
officials pointing out problems they have with <a href="http://www.sandiego.gov/ethics/">the
city's ethics commission</a> to the future existence of the EC. The
latest battle presents an excellent window into the mindset of those who
oppose government ethics, especially, in this case, the enforcement of campaign finance
rules.<br>
<br>

(<b>Update:</b> March 1, 2010: Also see this <a href="http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2010-02-28/story/ethics_code… <i>Times-Union</i> editorial </a>on the importance of an independent ethics commission that has authority over independent authorities. A particularly valuable observation: "The city Ethics Commission needs the ability to obtain independent legal advice.

Almost three years ago, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/289">a blog post</a> about the
scandal that rocked my town, North Haven, CT. Since then, one of the two arrested department
heads, the finance director, was given accelerated
rehabilitation (lenient probation) because he turned state's evidence.
The other department head, and his wife, who was his assistant, spent
years delaying trial, and then also asked for accelerated

India and China have not only been the home of new varieties of
entrepreneurialism. In these countries, creative individuals have also come up with
novel approaches to dealing with local government corruption.<br>
<br>
An expatriate Indian physics professor in the U.S. came up with the
brilliant idea of a Zero-Rupee Note to hand out in situations where
local officials expect or ask for bribes.<br>
<br>

<br>
Cheryl Forchilli, chair of the <a href="http://www.ethics.state.fl.us/&quot; target="”_blank”">Florida
Commission on Ethics</a> (which deals with local government ethics),
wrote a <em></em><a href="http://floridathinks.com/florida-issues/florida-issues/ethics-watchdog-…; target="”_blank”">must-read

It is a truism of government ethics that a sense of entitlement is an
important cause of unethical conduct. People who feel entitled to the
power they wield feel they have the right to deviate from ethical norms
in ways others do not (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/100&quot; target="”_blank”">my blog post</a> on this
topic). Now there is research that supports this view.<br>
<br>