Complaints/ Investigations/Hearings

A settlement in a Massachusetts ethics proceeding can be used as
an educational opportunity in several ways.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.mass.gov/ethics/press-releases-meetings-and-publications/pre…; target="”_blank”">a

Government ethics proceedings are usually not very satisfying for
those involved. Individuals rarely get to tell the entire story from
their point of view. Nor do they profit from hearing how others saw the situation or experienced the events. The format for ethics proceedings is
similar to the criminal justice system, with charges, a prosecution,
witnesses, documents, and the ethics commission as jury. Or a
settlement is reached, the equivalent of a plea bargain, and no
story is told at all. Or no probable cause is found, and what

<a href="http://www.acluct.org/issues/studyfindsdeficientpolicec.htm&quot; target="”_blank”">An
eye-opening report was published this week</a> by the American
Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. The report was based on a
survey of all the state's police departments regarding the filing of
complaints. Although complaints filed by the public against police
officers rarely involve conflicts of interest, some of the findings

Yesterday, at the annual conference of <a href="http://www.cogel.org/">the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL)</a>, the only association of state and local government ethics professionals, Judge Anthony Wilhoit was given the COGEL Award, which is
given annually to someone who has "made a significant, demonstrable,
and positive contribution to the fields of campaign finance,
elections, ethics, freedom of information or lobbying for a

<br>The headline of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/us/politics/voters-oust-lawmakers-acc…; target="”_blank”">a
New York <i>Times</i> article today</a> is, "Ethics
in Play, Voters Oust Incumbents Under Inquiry." One's first
impression upon reading the article is that people are throwing
unethical politicians out of office. The system is working. But upon

An interesting case in Iowa raises questions about the purposes behind post-employment, or "revolving door," provisions, including whom they are
supposed to protect and why.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://muscatinejournal.com/news/local/gpc-pushes-back-and-so-does-its-…; target="”_blank”">an

The reason I haven't written about George Anderson is that he has
done too much, and been too controversial, for me to get a handle on him. In other words, laziness. He
has been an ethics and non-ethics watchdog in Georgia for many years, filing
numerous ethics and other sorts of complaints both at the state and at the local level. He
heads an organization called Ethics in Government, which does not
seem to have a website.<br>
<br>
When an ethics watchdog organization was founded primarily, it

Last week, I wrote blog posts about how Chicago's ethics program
needs <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/chicago-task-force-second-report-iii-…; target="”_blank”">more

A number of important issues arise from a case before the <a href="http://www.iowa.gov/ethics/&quot; target="”_blank”">Iowa Ethics and Campaign
Disclosure Board</a> (ECDB) last week. The issues include: (1) how
to treat an inadequate complaint; (2) how to treat a complainant in
a proceeding, and (3) what to do when an ethics code and rules may
be inadequate to a situation where there is a strong appearance of
impropriety.<br>
<br>

Is it important that an ethics complaint be based on information
that is known personally? Some ethics codes require this. But the
fact is that many ethics violations are done secretly. It can take
some serious, professional investigation to obtain the facts and
relevant documents. This is why investigations by journalists are so
valuable. What they uncover is often used by citizens, good
government organizations, and others as the basis for an ethics
complaint. And sometimes a government employee who has suspected