Advisory Opinions

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/misuse-local-office-regional-board&qu…; target="”_blank”">In
October, I wrote a blog post</a> about a report commissioned by
the <a href="http://www.wmata.com/&quot; target="”_blank”">Washington Metropolitan Area
Transit Authority</a> (WMATA), based on an investigation of an

News from British Columbia provides strong evidence of how difficult
it is for anyone to deal with his own conflict situation, even a government
ethics professional. No one should think that it is easy for someone
to see an appearance of impropriety relating to himself or to respond to a conflict allegation against him in anything but a personal manner. A
government ethics program must facilitate the process of dealing responsibly with a conflict situation by allowing, or even
requiring, officials to seek neutral, professional advice. And a

A presidential election day is a good time to consider how vague,
character-based ethics rules can be misused.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/international/21565144-pitfalls-aspiring-…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the October 27 <i>Economist</i></a>, the Iranian constitution,
for example, requires a presidential candidate to have the

Independent agencies, especially those with lots of money to spend
and contracts to enter into, require not just ethics policies, but a
comprehensive, independent ethics program. This rarely acknowledged
fact has been made clear once again by an external audit of an
agency that proved completely unable to self-regulate its officials'

<b>Yet Another Mayoral Charity Mess, This Time in Toronto</b><br>

An interesting issue has arisen in Louisiana. It involves an
important distinction in government ethics, between law and
function.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://theadvocate.com/home/3663529-125/ethics-board-bese-member-may&qu…; target="”_blank”">an
AP article this weekend</a>, the Louisiana Board of Ethics found
that a state board of education member may keep both this position

When it comes to post-employment restrictions, a mayor should not be
considered as just a member of the legislative or executive branch, no
matter what the form of government (strong mayor or mayor-council).
A mayor has a special status that sets her apart from other local
officials. Post-employment restrictions that apply only to one's
branch or agency should not be relevant to a mayor. During the
cooling-off period, a mayor should not do business with or lobby the
government at all.<br>
<br>

<b>Ethics Code Amendment Without a Scandal</b><br>
Sometimes conflict situations, when they are handled responsibly,
lead to changes in an ethics code. This happened recently in Prince
William County, Virginia, according to <a href="http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2012/jul/25/gainesville-supervisor-pres…; target="”_blank”">an
article on the insidenova.com website</a>.<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

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