Conflicts

The concept of a conflict of interest is sometimes stretched far beyond
what government ethics laws say, usually by those making accusations
against government officials. But here is an example where a respected
judge stretched the concept even further. It comes from<a href="http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/854172&quot; target="”_blank”"> a decision</a> by Judge

According to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/07/AR20090…; target="”_blank”">a
Washington <span>Post</span> article</a>
this weekend, U.S. Senators Conrad and Dodd were cleared by
the Senate Select Committee on Ethics with respect to the senators'
membership in Countrywide Financial's VIP mortgage program. The

The great majority of local governments that think they have no state
or local law or rules regarding local officials' conflicts of interest
do actually have a conflict of interest rule.<br>
<br>
This rule is hidden in Robert's Rules, which is usually the set of
rules under which local government bodies operate. Here is what it says
in §45 (Voting Procedure), in the first subsection on Rights and
Obligations in Voting (I'm quoting from the Perseus Publishing tenth
edition, pp.394-395):<br>
<br>

According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/us/politics/21lobby.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> in Tuesday's New York <span>Times,</span>
nonprofits are seeking an exception to the Obama administration's rule
that lobbyists cannot serve in areas where they have lobbied. This raises
the issue of the purpose of revolving-door provisions, which are common
in local government ethics codes.<br>

Individuals and companies doing the work of government or work approved by government, even when
they do not have a direct financial relationship with government, should be within the jurisdiction of a
government's ethics code. This controversial position is strengthened
by what happened to many Tennessee local governments, according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/us/08bond.html&quot; target="”_blank”">a front-page

When I saw the headline from the Anchorage <span>Daily News,</span> "Palin Calls Blogger's
Ethics Complaint Bogus," and saw that it had to do with clothing the
governor wore, I thought I might write a piece about using ethics
complaints for the purpose of political harassment. But when I read <a href="http://www.adn.com/palin/story/735153.html&quot; target="”_blank”">the article</a>, I

Thumbs up for the Virginia House of Delegates General Laws Committee.
According
to <a href="http://www.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/opinion/op_ed/article/bill_aims_f…; target="”_blank”">an

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/nyregion/22tickets.html&quot; target="”_blank”">An
article</a> deep in the first section of this Sunday's New York <span>Times</span> presents an interesting
ethical dilemma. In New York State, it used to be common for state
troopers and local police officers to negotiate, effectively plea
bargain, at the courthouse with people they'd given tickets to. And

<p class="MsoNormal">Here’s a new, foolproof way for an elected official to make
some money on the side: loan money to your campaign, charge it a lot of
interest, and then pay the loan principal off slowly, over a number of
years.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal">Perks that public officials give themselves should be
monitored as carefully as gifts, campaign contributions, and relationships with
contractors. But they are not. And they’re usually easy to hide.</p>