There are several problems with Houston's new ethics provisions, in
addition to what I pointed out in my last blog post. Some of them are
typical, some of them are unusual. The ethics reform ordinance is attached;
see below; <a href="http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=10123&stateId=43&stateN…; target="”_blank”">the
old
ethics ordinance can be found by clicking here</a> and scrolling down

Last week, the Houston council passed a number of amendments to its
ethics ordinance. They were billed as a big step forwards, but I do not
agree. In this post, I will look at what people have been saying about
the reforms and how the role of the ethics commission has changed. In
the next post I will take a critical look at the new provisions.<br>
<br>

<a href="http://www.paytoplaylawblog.com/2011/01/articles/lay-of-the-land-2011/#…; target="”_blank”">This
week, the Pay to Play Law Blog</a> took a snapshot of the status of
pay-to-play laws across the country, breaking them down into four
categories:  jurisdictions that impose significant restrictions,
including debarment; jurisdictions that require disclosure;
jurisdictions with limited requirements; and jurisdictions that are

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/16/AR20110…; target="”_blank”">Yesterday's
Washington Post has a long article</a> on a topic one would expect to find in a law review: the effect of the Constitution's Speech or Debate
Clause on the prosecution of members of Congress.<br>
<br>
The article starts out with a strong statement: "A constitutional clash

The recent discussion of the use of violent imagery in political talk caused me to take
a look at my own use of violent imagery, and to consider what is wrong about the use of such imagery, especially with respect to government ethics.<br>
<br>

Insurance is a big area for abuse in local government. It usually
constitutes a sizeable dollar percentage of a town's contracts, and an
insurance broker who works in government can use his or her position to
get the insurance business of companies that do or want to do business
with the town. And insurance is an area few people understand, and
which no department, office, or board may be responsible for overseeing.<br>
<br>

One of the most effective ways to create a good ethics environment is
by telling the full story of the bad ethics environment that preceded
it. If someone or, better, a number of people, have the courage and
integrity to not only admit publicly to what they and their colleagues did, but to tell it like a story, a group story, it will have a cathartic effect.
It will cleanse the community and act as a point where everything is
in the open and continues to be in the open. It will make it easier for

You can
learn something from every local government ethics code there is, and especially from codes that have only been proposed. Today I'm going to look at a
proposed ethics code for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Ellyn,_Illinois&quot; target="”_blank”">Glen Ellyn, IL</a>,
a western suburb of Chicago (pop. 27,000). The proposed code
and resolution are attached; see below.<br>
<br>

Are Americans turning First Amendment free speech into a fetish? The
reason I ask this question is because, after writing this sentence in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/carrigan-free-speech-case-goes-suprem…; target="”_blank”">a
recent blog post</a> — "Saying that a local legislator [with a conflict of interest] has a free
speech right to vote is no different than

I've written before about some of the problems relating to the Hatch
Act's prohibition of local government employees running for office if