I talk a lot about the importance of independent ethics commissions.
But independence is not always a good thing for local government boards
and commissions. Independence without oversight, transparency, and independent
ethics enforcement easily turns into someone's fiefdom.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://m.freep.com/news.jsp?key=555951&rc=ne&p=1&quot; target="”_blank”">an

End runs around ethics and campaign finance laws are one of my favorite
topics to write about. A sizeable percentage of the creative energies of
government officials and their attorneys seems to go into coming up
with ways of getting around these laws. And then arguing that such laws are
of little value since you can't plug loopholes as fast as they can invent
them.<br>
<br>
The <a href="http://www.cgs.org/&quot; target="”_blank”">Center for Governmental

<br>
Standard of proof is a big issue in ethics enforcement, as it is in
any enforcement. A year and a half ago, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/452&quot; target="”_blank”">a blog post</a> on the
mishmash of standards of proof in local ethics codes and in the codes of states that have jurisdiction over local government ethics.
In many codes there is no stated standard or a worthlessly

<br>
While we're in North Carolina, it's worth a look at a new poll of North
Carolina citizens on their views of public corruption. The poll is from
Elon University, and was conducted a month ago.<br>
<br>

I'd like to call your attention to a new local government law
blog that, among other issues, covers government ethics. It's called <a href="http://sogweb.sog.unc.edu/blogs/localgovt/&quot; target="”_blank”">Coates' Canons: NC
Local Government Law Blog</a>, and it's a joint effort of  local
government law faculty members at the School of Government at the
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Albert Coates, after whom the

There are a lot of stupid reasons for opposing ethics reform
initiatives, but an organization in Utah has <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pull%20a%20Plaxico&quot; target="”_blank”">pulled a Plaxico Burress</a>
with the stupidest of all.<br>
<br>

What do clean water laws have to do with government ethics laws?
According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an article in
today's New York Times</a>, there are three connections. One, the water
in Scottsdale, AZ, where government ethics professionals just
congregated for a conference, has high amounts of arsenic in it.<br>
<br>

<br>
<b>Good and Bad News from Memphis</b><br>
The good news from Memphis is that newly-elected mayor A. C. Wharton,
Jr. issued an ethics executive order last week (attached; see below).
The order's provisions, which do not apply to council and its staff,
are less valuable in their own right than as a prod to the council to

After many months of deliberation (and <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/palm-beach-county-business-coalition-…
blog post</a>), yesterday the Palm Beach Board of County Commissioners
passed three ordinances, establishing a new <a href="http://www.pbcgov.com/pubInf/Agenda/20091215/4d.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">ethics and

In August, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
granted a former state representative a <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/18102368/16-PI-Order&quot; target="”_blank”">temporary
restraining order</a> with respect to a state revolving door provision
that prohibits state representatives from representing anyone other
than a state political subdivision before the state legislature for one
year after leaving office.<br>