They have various names, such as councils of governments (COGs),
joint powers authorities (JPAs), and regional councils or commissions, but whatever names they have, these
local government associations are often left outside of both
local and state government ethics programs. And yet, as the term
"joint powers authorities" implies, they do wield power and do spend
or affect the spending of money, often huge amounts of money in transportation, water, and other construction projects.<br>
<br>

There is a great deal to be learned from the selection process for
the new District of Columbia Board of Ethics and Government
Accountability, which is effectively complete. Three weeks ago, I
wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/problems-nominating-top-government-la…; target="”_blank”">a
blog post</a> about the nomination of Robert Spagnoletti to be

Providing incentives to attract companies or get them to expand
their operations in a city or county has always been a controversial
issue. Incentives are seen as necessary to attract, keep, or expand
jobs locally, but they can also be an unnecessary way to get local
governments into bidding wars (or what is presented to them as a
bidding war) with other local governments, to the benefit of
companies who are going to build or expand no matter what local
governments offer.<br>
<br>

New Orleans must have the largest number of civic organizations that
focus on government ethics, and the greatest amount of activity among them. There is the <a href="http://www.metropolitancrimecommission.org/index.html&quot; target="”_blank”">Metropolitan
Crime Commission</a>, a watchdog group that has filed ethics

<br>Here is one of the most useful sections of my new book <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/ethics%20book&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>Local Government
Ethics Programs</i></a>. Summer is upon us, and most ethics
commissions that do not have a case before them do not meet. In
fact, many ethics commissions are nearly
inactive all year long. But this doesn't have to happen. There's a lot that needs to be done.<br>
<br>

There is <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/files/lgep1-0%20-%20Robert%20Wechsler.htm#Gov…; target="”_blank”">a section of my new book <i>Local Government Ethics Programs</i></a> (click and scroll down to subsection 9) on the need for more transparency in the provision of ethics
advice. What I just realized is that this is another

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. For
those too young to remember, President Nixon's re-election campaign
had people break in to the Democratic National Committee's offices
in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120617/EDIT07/306179972/1021/ED…; target="”_blank”">an

<p><a href="http://www.cityethics.org">City Ethics</a> president,
Carla Miller, worked with <a href="http://www.integrityfl.org/">Integrity

Possibly the most important single thing in government ethics is the
recognition that just because something isn't required, it doesn't
mean you can't do it, and that just because something is not
expressly prohibited, it doesn't mean you <i>can</i> do it. This is an
expanded version of what I've often talked about:  that, unlike most laws, ethics
laws are minimum requirements.<br>
<br>
I really like it, for example, when, even though the law does not require

Erosion of an ethics program can occur in many ways (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/files/lgep1-0%20-%20Robert%20Wechsler.htm#Bac…; target="”_blank”">the