<br>
Never a dull moment in Chicago. According to <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-carothers-plead-2010020…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Chicago <i>Tribune</i></a>, a now-former alderman has pleaded
guilty to bribery and tax fraud charges relating to $40,000 in work done on
his home by a developer whose development he backed. This makes him the

<b>Update:</b> February 19, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
This blog post is about Chicago, and things are more complicated in
Chicago than in other American municipalities. So please read slowly
and carefully.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/ct-met-daley-deputy-qu…; target="”_blank”">an

Should ethics commission members follow ethics laws to the letter, and
no further, or should they provide leadership and a role model by going
beyond legalism and instead acting ethically? State EC members in New York and
Georgia are telling the world by their actions and their words that only the letter of
the law matters in government ethics.<br>
<br>

When the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives says, "the
American people don’t care about process" in <a href="http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/transcript-of-pelosi-presser/">a
news
conference</a> (the context was the process surrounding the health
care bill), this topic, which is central not only to government ethics,
but to our legal and political system, is worth focusing on.<br>
<br>

<b>Update: December 10, 2010</b> (see below)<br>
<br>
After all I've written about the immunity courts have given legislators from enforcement actions by ethics commissions, I now
can write about a court decision that gives ethics commissions and their
staff immunity from suits by respondents in ethics enforcement actions, in this case one for defamation against an ethics board's executive director.
The respondent in this case, however, is not a legislator, but a losing

<b>Update:</b> February 5, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
Here's an interesting dual position question, that is, a question
involving one individual holding two government positions. The most
important
conflict involved in dual positions is that you cannot consistently
fulfill
your fiduciary obligations to one constituency while fulfilling your

<br><p>Cities across the United States are creating and expanding Ethics Commissions, Ethics Offices and Inspector Generals in order to fight corruption and establish higher ethical standards for their governments. <br> <br> I will be posting some of the best ideas from these programs on this site. <br> <br> If you have comments on what is written, good, bad or just a stray idea, please comment! <br> <br> <br> <b>Carla Miller, president, City Ethics.</b></p><br><br><br><br>

<b>Update</b>: February 3, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
A <a href="http://sogweb.sog.unc.edu/blogs/localgovt/?p=1704&quot; target="”_blank”">NC Local
Government Blog post</a> yesterday made me aware that there have
recently been some very public conflict of interest issues involving
North Carolina's alcoholic beverage control (ABC) system, the state
liquor sales program, which allows

Yesterday, the California Supreme Court published <a href="http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S157341.PDF&quot; target="”_blank”">its
decision</a> relating to the conflict of interest charges against five
members of San Diego's pension board, which I discussed a couple months

I continue to be thankful for Sarah Palin's incredible ability to get
pedestrian government ethics issues into the public eye. This time it's
the use of private e-mails for public business, according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/us/politics/24palin.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's New York <i>Times</i></a>.<br>
<br>