Conflicts

Lawyer-legislators are extremely creative people. The latest use of
their creativity is to argue that ethics boards cannot require
disclosure of a conflict of interest that arises from legal
representation because they have no jurisdiction over the practice of
law. Only the state Supreme Court has that jurisdiction.<br>
<br>
The lawyer-legislator in this matter is state senator Rob Marionneaux
of Louisiana, a state whose ethics code applies to local governments.

Who is the best sort of individual to select as an ethics commission
member?  Some people believe it's a member of the clergy, because
who else is more ethical? And there are many clergy members on ethics
commissions across the country. But this shows either a
misunderstanding of government ethics (that it's about being good
rather than dealing responsibly with conflicts of interest) or a
preference for appearances, even if it gives the public the wrong
impression about what government ethics is all about.<br>
<br>

Four years after I wrote a blog post entitled <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/133&quot; target="”_blank”">The Ethics of Today's
Municipal Pension Plan Problems</a>, according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/opinion/11kramer.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
op-ed piece in the New York Times</a>, New Jersey agreed with the

It is troubling that legislators insist that legislative immunity
protects them in order that they may represent their constituents, and
yet legislative bodies rarely have rules to ensure that their members
represent their constituents by showing up to debate and vote.<br>
<br>
The result is that some legislators, at every level, do not adequately
represent their constituents by showing up to work. And often voters do
not know. This may not be something that can be enforced by a local

Should advisory board and task
force members be excepted from conflict of interest rules? Jurisdictions disagree about this. Some believe that, when a
board has no authority to act or implement, the usual rules should not
apply. The principal argument is that there are times when a government
needs to get people with opposing interests together — such as business
and union interests — in order to hash out community problems. Another
argument is the need for expertise.<br>
<br>

It's important not to have pension board members with serious conflicts
of
interest, such as a personal interest in the board's investments,
or acting as providers of investment products (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/pension-board-reform-california&quot; target="”_blank”">my
blog
post</a> on California reforms prohibiting such conflicts).<br>
<br>

Yesterday, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/intimidation-%E2%80%94-worst-offense-…; target="”_blank”">a blog post about intimidation</a>, but I forgot to
mention what might be the greatest fear among citizens relating to their
local government:  the fear that if they speak out against local
officials, especially school officials, it will affect their school-age
children.<br>
<br>

Here's an interesting modern spin on an old-fashioned nepotism/conflict
of interest matter. According to <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/98382569.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an article
in Tuesday's Milwaukee <i>Journal-Sentinel</i></a>, the husband of a member of
a charter school's board was hired to teach at the charter school, and
there is disagreement over whether there is a conflict or not.<br>

There is nothing more important in local government ethics than timely,
independent, professional ethics advice. And there is no bigger problem
in local
government ethics than poor ethics advice, especially that given by
local government attorneys who (1) do not have a full understanding of
government ethics, especially the fact that its rules are minimum
requirements, which means that a strict interpretation of the language is inappropriate in providing ethics advice, (2) are

San Francisco's <a href="http://www.sfethics.org/ethics/2011/01/san-francisco-campaign-and-gover…; target="”_blank”">Conflict
of Interest code</a> has an unusual provision about voting on one's own
conduct or position. You would think this provision goes without
saying, but I can assure you it does not.<br>
<ul>
§3.210. Voting on Own Character or Conduct.<br>