Ethics Commissions/Administration

<br>Here is one of the most useful sections of my new book <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/ethics%20book&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>Local Government
Ethics Programs</i></a>. Summer is upon us, and most ethics
commissions that do not have a case before them do not meet. In
fact, many ethics commissions are nearly
inactive all year long. But this doesn't have to happen. There's a lot that needs to be done.<br>
<br>

My <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/using-confidentiality-smokescreen&quot; target="”_blank”">most
recent blog post</a> involved ethics commission confidentiality.
This one involves the other side of the coin:  ethics
commission transparency.<br>
<br>
I often send blog posts to officials I write about, hoping that they
will enter into dialogue about the issue, privately or online, or at

I have written about the need for ethics commissions to go beyond
the criminal enforcement paradigm, which limits commissions to determining whether an
individual respondent has violated an ethics provision or not. It is hard to find instances of a commission looking at the bigger picture, that is, at the common practices and unwritten rules that underlie an individual's ethical misconduct. I

<h1>What’s missing from new Jacksonville ethics office? Money</h1>

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<h2>No budget or staff yet, despite being adopted by City Council last summer.</h2>
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<div><strong>Posted:</strong> January 17, 2012

Can a local ethics commission be lobbied? It's conceivable, especially with respect to recommendations for ethics reform. It is
important for an ethics commission to have an ethics code provision
or regulation that prohibits ex parte communications relating to any
proceeding. But with respect to ethics reform recommendations, the public's input is important, and there would seem to be no
reason why a registered lobbyist shouldn't be able to put in her two

For Independence Day, here's a blog post that pulls together all
past blog posts on ethics commission independence. EC independence is
essential to an effective and respected ethics program, and yet a small
minority of ECs are truly independent. Those individuals seeking to
make their city or county's EC independent or to set up an independent
EC need all the ammunition they can get. That is, they need to know
what the options are, what the advantages are, and how ineffective and

Last week, Wisconsin taught us the lesson that even when you go to great lengths
to ensure a nonpartisan, independent ethics body, there will be
politicians who accuse it of being partisan when it makes decisions
against their interests. The good thing is that, when the body is truly
nonpartisan and independent, these politicians look ridiculous. But often there is a serious confusion among nonpartisanship, bipartisanship, and independence with respect to the selection of ethics body members. It is important to understand the distinctions among them.<br>

I've written many blog posts about various cases where the legislative
immunity defense has been made, but I haven't pulled together in one
post the
three alternative, preventative approaches local governments can take
to deal with the issue of legislative
immunity before anyone raises it as a defense. It is far better, and
far less expensive, to prevent local
legislators from raising the defense of legislative immunity than it is
to litigate this complex issue. It is also damaging to the public trust

Agency consolidation seems to be the buzzword this year. The
ostensible reason is to save money and use government resources more
efficiently. But is this really the principal reason?<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/TOB/S/2011SB-01009-R00-SB.htm&quot; target="”_blank”">A
bill has just been introduced in Connecticut</a> (my state) to place
the Office of

For any speech in debate in either house, no member shall be questioned
in any other place, except by the ethics commission as set forth 
in Article III, section 8 of this Constitution.<br>
<br>
No, this is not the text of a dream I had last night. This is the text
of <a href="http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText11/HouseText11/H5410.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">an