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>
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<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>

This summer, several New Jersey local government officials were
arrested in a big FBI sting operation (see my <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/815&quot; target="”_blank”">blog post</a>). Yesterday, <a href="http://media.nj.com/hudsoncountynow_impact/other/Jersey-City-Audit.pdf&…; target="”_blank”">an

Ethics reform aimed at political opponents is a good way to undermine the whole idea of ethics reform. This is what is happening in San Jose.<br>
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San Jose starts off with an odd ethics program. <a href="http://www.sanjoseca.gov/Clerk/commissionboard/Election/SJMCTitle12.pdf…; target="”_blank”">Title 12: Ethics Provisions</a> does not even have a conflict of

The relationship between San Diego's council and ethics commission
continues to prove unhealthy. It shows how wrong it is for elected
officials to appoint and control the body that oversees their conduct.<br>
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COGEL (Council on Governmental Ethics Laws) annual conferences are often held at a time and place where there are
serious government ethics issues. Last year, the conference was held in
Chicago the day Gov. Blagojevich was arrested. This year, the
conference was held in Maricopa County, AZ, where few days go by when
there isn't a serious government ethics issue. Maricopa County has got
to be the most dysfunctional county in the U.S.<br>
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Yesterday, Philadelphia's Task Force on Ethics and Campaign Finance
Reform released a <a href="http://media.philly.com/documents/Task+Force+Report.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">58-page
report</a> (plus ethics laws) requested by the city's mayor and council
president in 2008.<br>
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The report recommends a large number of reforms, most of them stricter

I'm back from the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL)
conference, and I will be sharing some valuable information from the
talks and panels I attended.<br>
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In a panel on gifts provisions in ethics codes, the panel consisted not
only of the usual government ethics professionals, but also a lawyer
who advises and defends lobbyists and those who do business with
governments. One difference in their perspectives stood out.<br>
<br>