My first experience with municipal politics in New Jersey, where I lived for nine years before moving to Connecticut, was accompanying some neighbors to a council meeting, because a couple of them wanted to speak about a change in zoning that affected the street we lived on. A neighbor asked the mayor when they could speak, and was told people would be alerted when it came time to speak. The council debated the issue and then, without a pause, started to vote on it. I rose in protest and had to insist, against people saying it was too late, that my neighbors be heard.

From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Men_and_an_Elephant"><b>Wikipedia</b…;.

In an article published in the <a href="http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=48372">Jacksonville Daily Record</a> on Thursday, Carla Miller revealed her plans as the City's new Ethics Officer: <br><i>'In a very large city like Jacksonville you can't say that every single person who comes into government will be an ethical and honest person, so it comes down to the control systems.

From: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=48985
Article published on: September 6, 2007
<b>by Max Marbut
Staff Writer</b>

Having an effective ethics program in any environment is all about enhancing communication.
That’s how Carla Miller, the City’s recently-appointed ethics officer, described her task at hand.

<p><i>This is the complete text of Mayor John Peyton's speech to the
Jacksonville City Council in which he appoints City Ethics' Carla
Miller as Ethics Officer.</i><br>
<b>August 28, 2007</b>
<h1>
Peyton apologizes, promises reforms, looks to the future</h1>
<p>
These are demanding and difficult times for Jacksonville, a city with a
proud tradition of fiscal responsibility. </p>
<p>For the past 12 years, we have enjoyed the lowest

Yesterday in a dramatic speech to the City's Council, Mayor Peyton announced a series of sweeping ethics reforms, foremost of which was his appointment of Carla Miller as the City's Ethics Officer - in his words:

An article in the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR20070… Post</a> by Dana Milbank gives a fitting close to the beleaguered ex-Attorney General's tenure:

Taiwan has come up with the perfect way to prevent mayors from misusing government funds. Its solution appears to be based on the way parents prevent their children from taking money out of their wallets: give them an allowance to spend any way they please.

Today's guilty plea by New Orleans' City Council vice president, Oliver Thomas, is on its face about the acceptance of a bribe. But behind that bribe is a serious conflict of interest.

Not only was Thomas the council vice president and longest-serving council member, but he was also a member of the board of the French Market Corporation, a city agency that owns and manages buildings in the French Quarter. The bribe was from someone who wanted to keep his parking lot contract with the French Market Corporation.

It's difficult to show clearly that ethical government correlates with ethical conduct. However, last year Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel came up with <a href="http://www.nber.org/digest/feb07/w12312.html">a study</a> that does this: They studied parking tickets given to United Nations diplomats in Manhattan.