Contractors and Vendors

In Hawaii, "Aloha" is not just a greeting. It also is a way of
treating people, of thanking them. In other words, it often involves
a gift. That explains the headline of <a href="http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2013/07/01/19418-can-too-much-aloha-b…; target="”_blank”">a
Honolulu <i>Civil Beat</i> article yesterday</a>, "Can Too Much Aloha Be

It's been a few years since <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/679&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote about the
problems with the partisan, or "bipartisan," administration of local elections</a>.
One thing that arisen from this year's election is a strong feeling
that it is high time that New York City's Board of Elections be reformed.
Hopefully, this process will get a great deal of publicity, and

According to <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21563351&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in last week's <i>Economist</i></a>, last year 22 local councils in
Italy were disbanded and taken over by the
national government due to alleged infiltration by organized crime.
This is an extreme way to deal with a poor local government ethics
environment. But it's a very difficult problem for a local government to deal with.<br>

Many ethics codes expressly state that government officials and
employees may not allow the use of city stationery for any purpose
other than city business. The principal goal of this rule is
to prevent officials from using city stationery for personal
purposes, such as campaigns, business transactions, and charitable
solicitations. The rule is part of the more general prohibition of the misuse
of city resources and of the city's power and reputation as the manager
of the community.<br>
<br>

Defining what lobbying is is one of the most important parts of a lobbying law. Not only are many definitions of lobbying
unclear or full of loopholes, but it is difficult to get even a good definition across, because the popular concept of lobbying is different from what lobbying really is.<br>
<br>
This can be clearly seen in what has recently happened in the Orange

I've written a little about ethics issues involving quasi-governmental
entities and private entities doing government work (<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/jurisdiction-and-oversight-over-nonpr…; target="”_blank”">oversight</a>,

It's been a year since I last wrote about placement agents, so it's
time for an update, based on <a href="http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0523/features-pensions-glen-sergeon-a…; target="”_blank”">an
article put up yesterday on the <i>Forbes Magazine</i> site</a>, designated
for the May 23 issue.<br>
<br>
Placement agents are intermediaries between pension boards and

Local government vendor or supplier codes of conduct are not commonly found
in the U.S. In a limited search, I couldn't find one. But corporations commonly have them, as do some Canadian cities and some states
and state agencies. And they sound like a good idea.<br>
<br>
The reason I raise this idea is that Cuyahoga County's new county

There is no greater pleasure for some people than accusing ethics
professionals and ethics commission members of unethical behavior. That
is why ethics professionals and ethics commission members have to be
extra careful about what they do, and why individuals who have not
dealt responsibly with conflicts of interest, at least in the recent
past, should not accept a nomination to an ethics commission.<br>
<br>
What no one wants to read is what is being written about the current

Officials soliciting charitable contributions from those doing business
before them is unethical conduct too many ethics codes allow, often
expressly. Miami-Dade County has in its ethics code what appears at
first to be a very reasonable exception to the definition of a gift:<br>
<ul>
§2-11.1(2)(2)(g) Gifts solicited by Commissioners on behalf of any
nonprofit organization for use solely by that organization where
neither the Commissioner nor his or her staff receives any compensation