I'm currently reading a classic political science book about urban
politics, <i>Who Governs?</i> by Robert Dahl. Who governs? is a question
that is not asked often enough in local government ethics. It is not
enough for an ethics program to have jurisdiction over officials and
employees. It needs to have jurisdiction over those who actually

Colorado has an extremely dysfunctional ethics program, everyone is
complaining about it, but approaches to fixing it are sometimes just as
dysfunctional. A year ago, I wrote three blog posts about its
problems and people's complaints (<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/total-gift-bans-and-legal-defense-fun…; target="”_blank”">total

<h4>Banning meals provided by lobbyists was among the proposals up for
discussion Tuesday by the [Missouri] House General Laws Committee. Nearby was a
lunch spread for committee members, provided by a lobbyist.</h4><br>
—the beginning of <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/virginia-young/who…

Recently, the hiring of lobbyists to represent cities before state
and federal governments and agencies has become controversial. Some
people think this is an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds. I don't
agree. However, the hiring of external lobbyists (as opposed to
government officials who do the lobbying themselves) does raise some
government ethics issues, because it adds to the mix highly
politicized contractors.<br>
<br>
This problem is exacerbated when there are laws limiting

Last November, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/advisory-opinion-concerning-constitue…; target="”_blank”">a
long blog post</a> examining <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/sites/cityethics.org/files/DC%20Constituent%2…; target="”_blank”">an important general advisory opinion</a>

Why is it so hard for officials, personally or in drafting ethics codes, to let an ethics commission do its
work, dismissing complaints that lack validity (i.e., that do not state an ethics violation by someone under the ethics program's jurisdiction or for which there is insufficient evidence)? Why, instead, do they create and take advantage of non-substantive considerations for dismissal of complaints in order to take revenge on complainants?<br>
<br>

According to <a href="http://citizensvoice.com/news/luzerne-county-council-should-hold-open-f…; target="”_blank”">an
editorial yesterday in the Luzerne County (PA) <i>Citizens Voice</i></a>,
the Luzerne County council, on advice of the county
attorney, is planning to hold an executive session tomorrow to

<b>City Attorney Ethics Enforcement in San Francisco</b><br>
<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Ex-SF-Supervisor-Yaki-heads-off-s…; target="”_blank”">An
article in the San Francisco <i>Chronicle</i> this week</a> says that the
city attorney filed a lawsuit against a former member of the board
of supervisors (the city's legislative body) who acted as a

This week, Seattle's expanded Whistleblower Protection Code became
effective (attached; see below). As what appears to be the most
extensive local whistleblower code, it deserves a look from any
local government seeking to draft or improve whistleblower
provisions.<br>
<br>
The major changes to the code, according to the ethics commission's
(SEEC) website, are:<blockquote>

According to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/all-montgomery-council-…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Washington <i>Post</i></a>, two weeks ago, a public
campaign financing bill (attached; see below) was introduced,
cosponsored by all council members of Montgomery County, MD, a