Local government vendor or supplier codes of conduct are not commonly found
in the U.S. In a limited search, I couldn't find one. But corporations commonly have them, as do some Canadian cities and some states
and state agencies. And they sound like a good idea.<br>
<br>
The reason I raise this idea is that Cuyahoga County's new county

Cuyahoga County, OH, which includes Cleveland, has been the site of a
large number of arrests of government officials, contractors, and

Sometimes concepts derived from one area of study, for one purpose, can
be valuable in another area of study, for another purpose. This is true
of the concepts of "injunctive norm" and "descriptive norm" derived by social psychology professor Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University for
use in the area of persuading people not to do certain things, such as litter.<br>
<br>

One Moore County (NC) commissioner has been faced with two conflict of
interest matters in 2010, one of which led him to recently resign
from a board. Although the two have nothing to do with each other, they
have become politically intertwined which, along with the lack of an ethics program, has prevented the
responsible handling of the conflicts.<br>
<br>

Bullheadedness is unprofessional, at least in most professions. By
"bullheadedness," I mean doing what you want no matter whether a
professional tells you not to do it or whether your boss tells you not
to do it, even if they tell you why and they are clearly right.<br>
<br>
One of the professions where bullheadedness is somewhat acceptable is

The Green Bay Packers football team is going to try to win its game
today in order to get to the playoffs and seek its first Super Bowl
victory since 1996. Before 1996, the Packers hadn't won a Super Bowl
since
Vince Lombardi coached them there in 1967.<br>
<br>
An ethics board meeting is not quite a Super Bowl, but Green Bay's

In February, Florida governor Charlie Crist asked for a grand jury to
report on government corruption in Florida. <a href="http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/JFAO-8CLT9A/$file/19thSWGJInt…; target="”_blank”">The
first
interim report</a> was filed yesterday. Its recommendations involve local government as well as state ethics laws.<br>
<br>

The recent arrest of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_George%27s_County,_Maryland&quot; target="”_blank”">Prince
George's
County (MD)</a> executive and his wife, who is a new member of
the county council, shows how wrong it is to give the county executive
and individual council
members power over development projects, a topic I've written about
with

According to <a href="http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101228/NEWS/…; target="”_blank”">an
article yesterday on seacoastonline.com</a>, a committee of the Select
Board of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hampton,_Nh&quot; target="”_blank”">North

It is difficult to emphasize too much that council control over the
ethics process is not only inappropriate and ineffective, but harmful.
The first use of a new ethics ordinance in the aptly named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Ground,_Washington&quot; target="”_blank”">Battle
Ground, Washington</a> (pop. 18,000) provides yet another example of
the problems that may arise.<br>
<br>