City Related

<b>Police Officer Side Businesses and Revenue Distinctions</b><br>
There's <a href="http://www.newpittsburghcourieronline.com/index.php/featured-news/metro…; target="”_blank”">an
interesting article in yesterday's <i>New Pittsburgh Courier</i></a>
about Pittsburgh police officer side businesses and the sorts of

There's a lot of food for thought in the February 21 decision of the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in the
case <a href="http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/13D0150P.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>Lodge No. 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police v. City of Philadelphia</i></a>.<br>
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The suit was brought in order to end the prohibition on police

It's been over two years since <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/large-contracts-bid-rigging-and-pensi…; target="”_blank”">I
wrote</a> about the indictments of former Detroit mayor Kwame
Kilpatrick, his father, and a city contractor. This morning,

What is the best way to prevent high-level officials from
participating in matters involving departments or agencies where
their close family members are employed, without doing this
unreasonably, that is, excluding situations where the family members
have no influence and will receive no benefits?<br>
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This is the question that has been raised in Baltimore by council

“It’s much to-do about not much. I’m trying to run a city, and
you’re worried about people’s relationships?” These are the words of
Mount Vernon, NY mayor Ernest Davis, who is the subject of IRS and
FBI investigations, and now an investigation by the city's ethics
board, according to <a href="http://www.lohud.com/article/20130227/NEWS02/302270055/Mount-Vernon-Eth…; target="”_blank”">an

The Los Angeles mayoral race has unearthed some conflict of interest
allegations that are worth a look. There are three interesting
issues. One, how much stock ownership in a public company is required to give rise to a conflict? Two, what about ownership of a competitor?
And three, what if you don't know a public company whose
stock you own is involved in a matter before you?<br>
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The first opinion of the District of Columbia's Board of Ethics and
Government Accountability (a searchable copy is attached; see below)
raises some interesting questions relating to enforcing
unenforceable ethics provisions, vagueness, and publishing evidence
and an opinion about a case that is being dismissed before an
investigation has been conducted. The opinion also shows that the
new ethics board has a long way to go up the learning curve of
government ethics.<br>
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One of the rarely questioned truisms of local government ethics is,
"One size does not fit all." Usually this means that one ethics code
is not right for every city or county, that every jurisdiction has
its own issues and problems.<br>
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In some ways this is true. New York City's huge ethics program is
hardly appropriate to a small town, because there is such a large
difference in available resources. But there is no difference when
it comes to ethics rules or the need for training or independent

For those of you who are tired of talk about "witch hunts," this
quote will be a great relief:<blockquote>

"I'm concerned about a zealous ethics staff chasing down rabbit
holes when there is no rabbit."</blockquote>

The arrest of Miami Beach's former procurement director last October
may not be news, but there's a lot to be learned from this case. The issues include personal discretion, alternatives to fully competitive bidding, access to information, and debarment rules.<br>
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