Advisory Opinions

<b>An Active EC Is a Good Thing</b><br>
Local officials often say that because there are no
complaints to or advisory opinions by their ethics commissions, their town
or city government does not have ethics problems. Actually, it's the other way
around. Local governments with active ethics commissions, especially
dealing with advisory opinions, are more likely to have healthy ethical
environments. It shows that people trust the ethics commission, it
shows that people are thinking about ethics issues, and it supplies

<h2>"The worst thing you can do is read the [ethics] law like a lawyer and
look for loopholes."<br></h2>
<br>
—Richard H. A. Washburn, training manager with the New York State <a href="http://www.nyintegrity.org/&quot; target="”_blank”">Commission
on Public Integrity</a> in a training session with St. Lawrence

A couple of months ago, the Ohio Ethics Commission did something very
wise and valuable:  it drafted <a href="http://www.ethics.ohio.gov/Opinions/2010-03.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an advisory
opinion on nepotism rules</a>, gathering information from years of
partial, specific advisory opinions, and providing examples. It even
gives excellent definitions of each of the relevant terms, including

Here's a clever way to abuse the advisory opinion process. A few months
after conduct begins, seek advice from the ethics commission. After the EC tells you it's okay, increase the amount of conduct so much that the advice is no
longer relevant, and then point to the advice in defense of the
conduct. Finally, refuse to provide information about the extent of the
conduct, so that no one can provide hard evidence that there is truly a change
in the extent of the conduct.<br>
<br>

On Independence Day weekend, it's worth remembering that independence
does not come cheap, and that there are some things that are more
important than independence.<br>
<br>
One of those things is the public trust. There is a serious cost to our society
when government officials place their independence from ethics
enforcement above the public trust, that is, when government
officials insist on legislative immunity.
And there is a cost to officials, too:  their trial not

Again and again, local government officials say that there is no need
for an improved ethics program in their town because no one is filing
complaints. If there were ethical problems, they argue, there would be
lots of complaints. But complaints are not an indication of the need
for a better government ethics program. The reason is that no one files
a complaint when they do not expect a fair hearing of the complaint
(most basic programs do not have a body that is considered independent
and neutral).<br>
<br>

This year, the Rhode Island ethics commission, which has jurisdiction
over local governments, has been bouncing around the issue of conflicts
of interest relating to local officials' involvement in 
negotiations with a union, where they or their spouse is a member of a
different local union that shares the same umbrella union and, often,
the same negotiators and some of the same funds. The public statements
on this issue, from representatives of unions and good government

One of the most difficult things for a government official to do is to
determine whether his or her conduct creates an appearance of
impropriety. Partially blinded by ego, surrounding yes-people, and the
government's ethical culture, an official often finds nothing
wrong with conduct that many or even most outsiders -- that is,
citizens -- find questionable or downright wrong. It is hard for them to put themselves in citizen shoes in order to see whether their conduct might appear improper.<br>
<br>

The New York City Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) recently issued an
advisory opinion (attached, see below) on the subject of conflicts
involving city council discretionary funds, a topic<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/429&quot; target="”_blank”"> I wrote about</a> last
year. This is a model advisory opinion, especially in the way it
provides a number of scenarios to which it applies the city's relevant

Rarely does someone make a comment to one of my
blog posts that brings such a fresh look at a standard conflict of
interest issue as <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/774&quot; target="”_blank”">the one
made recently by Catherine Mullhaupt</a>, Esq.,
Director of Member Information Services at the Michigan Townships
Association.<br>
<br>
It is important to recognize that the interest in having government