Saturday, August 29 is the day when the Jacksonville City Council's
finance committee will consider the budget for the city's ethics
office, a big $95,000. There has been talk of using the city's budget
crisis to get rid of the ethics office, but the newspapers and the
city's civic organizations want to preserve the office.<br>
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The city's ethics officer, who will be making a presentation, is Carla
Miller, president of City Ethics. The budget hearing can be viewed live
on Saturday, from

Here's a mind-twister of a situation, from St. Marys City (GA; pop
17,000).
According to <a href="http://www.jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2009-08-26/story/st_marys_city…; target="”_blank”">an
article on jacksonville.com</a>, four members of the city council wrote
the state attorney general asking for a ruling on whether a fifth

One of the most contentious topics in local government ethics is
prohibition vs. disclosure of gifts to officials. As with so many
government ethics issues, the best answer is both, but reaching
the best answer requires a thinking outside the box, along with a
sincere interest in ending pay-to-play, in this case, the use of gifts as a way to reward
officials for past or future conduct.<br>
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One example of such thinking outside the box comes from City Ethics'

Who should pay for a lack of government transparency, the officials
keeping the secrets or the citizens who lack access to information?<br>
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Applicant disclosure is an effective part of local government ethics
that is usually ignored. Usually it is officials who are required to
disclose potential conflicts of interest, either in the form of annual
disclosure statements, revised when circumstances change, or in the
form of announcements that they have a potential conflict and are
withdrawing from involvement in a matter.<br>
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The principal burden should be on officials, but placing an additional
burden on applicants -- such as those seeking zoning changes and

Explaining a political decision on the basis of government ethics, when
that really isn't the reason, can lead to government ethics reform
made on the basis of politics. That's what appears to have happened in
Boerne (TX), a small "city" of 6,000 residents outside San Antonio.<br>
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"I believe that an alderman's office is a political office," said
Chicago alderman Suarez, one of 50 aldermen to get their expense
allowances doubled last year, according to<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-chicago-aldermen-spend-16-…; target="”_blank”">
an article in the Chicago <i>Tribune</i></a>. Suarez, however, refused to use

Republican candidates in Cumberland County, in southern New Jersey
(pop. 150,000), are pushing for several ethics reforms, including some
fresh ideas.<br>
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According to <a href="http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cumberland/article_acc44e…; target="”_blank”">an

Jacksonville's ethics commission continues to explore interesting and
valuable ideas, according to <a href="http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=528791&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> this week in the Jacksonville <i>Financial News & Daily Record</i>.
At the first meeting of the commission's new procurement subcommittee,
loopholes in the bidding process were discussed.<br>
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In May I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/745">a blog post</a> about a so-called ethics emergency in Corpus Christi,
declared by a lame-duck council at its last meeting. This so-called emergency was the excuse for pushing through ethics
reforms without running them by the city's ethics commission or allowing public discussion. The new
council quickly suspended the reforms, pending review by the ethics
commission.<br>
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