I think it's safe to say that a local government ethics "first" has occurred in Montgomery County, Maryland. A transgendered council aide has filed a complaint against the county ethics commission on the grounds that the EC investigated her because of her gender identity, according to an article in…

I recently critiqued the new Michigan model local government ethics ordinance. Mark Liss, a council member in Michigan alerted me (and the world in his blog) to the new model's similarities with the Illinois model local government ethics ordinance, which was drafted in 2003. He even does a side-to-…

The Dallas ethics reforms described in a recent blog post were passed on Monday, according to the Dallas Morning News. However, according to James Ragland's column in yesterday's Morning News, the enforcement mechanism is still very weak. First of all, the ethics commission is completely passive. I…

New South Wales, Australia Premier Nathan Rees announces plain language reforms In an interview recently he said: "I want plain English to become an essential part of how the public sector does its business, every bit as essential as a financial impact statement." His statement at the opening of th…