Conflicts

<b>Note:</b> I made a few important changes to this blog post on January 10, in conjunction with the posting of my analysis of the parties' briefs in this case.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.nevadajudiciary.us/index.php/advancedopinions/785-carrigan-v…; target="”_blank”">The Nevada Supreme Court's

<a href="http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110106/OPINION01/101060319">An
editorial
in yesterday's <i>Star Press</i></a> of east central Indiana calls
for passage of a state law to prevent municipal employees from sitting on a
body that oversees their department or agency's budget. The focus is
primarily on preventing city and county workers from sitting on city
and county councils.<br>
<br>

Two important issues arise from a story about a competitive bid for a
concrete contract for an arena in Louisville which, according to <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20101127/OPINION01/311270025&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's Louisville <i>Courier-Journal</i></a>, was won by a
company solely owned by a member of the state task force that chose the

<br><br>There's an instructive local government ethics situation in the 2008
French film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068646/&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>The Class</i>
(Entre les murs)</a>, which I watched yesterday
evening. A teenage student is being given a disciplinary hearing at his
public high school in Paris after accidentally hitting a girl with his
bag and walking
out of his class. His teacher

What do you do when you are not the only member of your immediate
family who is an elected official? This question arose in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_County,_MD&quot; target="”_blank”">Frederick
County, MD</a>, the home of Camp David.<br>
<br>

Government pensions are one of the most serious issues facing local and
state governments. Most pension plans are underfunded, and the generous
pensions, the relatively short vesting periods, and the low retirement ages that allow for
at least one more career, not only cost taxpayers a great deal of money,
but seem unfair to those without pensions or with far worse pension
situations.<br>
<br>
This is not an area where government officials should want to add
apparent conflicts to the mix, but an investigation done by the Ohio

Consultants often fall between the cracks of government ethics. They
are contractors, but professionals rather than suppliers or
construction companies, and they often act just like government
officials, only they're not on the payroll. And yet the ethics rules
that apply to government officials often do not apply to consultants.
Often, ethics commissions don't even have jurisdiction over consultants.<br>
<br>

Indirect benefits are one of the most problematic issues in government
ethics. Usually, indirect benefits relate to an official's
relationships, that is, where the official receives not a direct
financial benefit, but satisfaction or an indirect benefit from a financial benefit
going instead to a relative, employer, customer, or substantial political
supporter.<br>
<br>
But there are other indirect benefits, for example, benefits that go
not to a business that employs the official or his spouse, but to the

Recusal is one of the least well understood aspects of government
ethics. Most people seem to think it is limited to abstaining on a vote
where you have a conflict of interest, and many ethics codes define it
that way, if they require recusal at all.<br>
<br>
But abstention is not sufficient for many reasons. One of them is at

<b>Note:</b> This blog post was posted on September 22, and I accidentally deleted it. This is a reposting.<br>
<br>
What
is recusal? More to the point, does the act of recusal require merely
inaction,
or action, or action and words? This has become an issue in the city of
Santa
Fe, but it is important to establish a definition for the purpose of
government
ethics.<br>
<br>