City Related

In a quality government ethics program, every official and employee
involved in a matter publicly discloses any possible conflict and
withdraws from the matter. But what if a city or county does not
have a quality government ethics program? How is the public to know
whether conflicts are being handled responsibly?<br>
<br>

When the economy is booming, local government
corruption feeds off the sale of government land, development
projects, and construction contracts. When the economy is doing
poorly, there is usually less money floating around to fund
corruption. But in bad times, local governments are willing to
accept the help of companies and nonprofits, which might have (or appear to have) their
own interests at stake in what they fund for local governments.
This leads to another set of problems.<br>
<br>

Between the American Thanksgiving holiday and throwing out my back so that I
couldn't sit at my computer, I missed one of the most fascinating
stories of the year:  a <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/read-the-court-ruling-remov…; target="”_blank”">judicial
dismissal of Toronto's mayor for a conflict of interest violation</a>.

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/chicago-task-force-second-report-v-%E…; target="”_blank”">In

Ethics program independence is, as far as I'm concerned, the single
most important issue in ethics reform. Nothing gains the public's
trust as much as an ethics program that is independent from the
officials over whom it has jurisdiction.<br>
<br>
It is clear from the second report of the Chicago Ethics Reform Task
Force (attached; see below) that the task force members cared about
making the Chicago's ethics program more independent. But the task

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/chicago-task-force-second-report-v-%E…; target="”_blank”">My

second blog post on the Chicago ethics task force's second report
identified what I considered to be its worst ideas</a>. Mayor
Emanuel's recommendations accepted its bad ideas just as much as
its good ideas.<br>
<br>

<a href="http://chicago.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=2213945&GUID=58366FD1-5D37…; target="”_blank”">The
second round of Chicago ethics reform recommendations</a>, based
on the ethics task force's second report (attached; see below), have

After <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-aisen…; target="”_blank”">Common
Cause questioned the fitness of Baltimore's government ethics

A situation that arose recently in Atlanta shows how important
it is to require applicant disclosure of relationships with local
government officials, and to hold applicants accountable. According to <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/atlanta-city-councilman-lamar-willis…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Atlanta <i>Journal-Constitution</i></a>, Atlanta's ethics

A conflict situation in Albuquerque presents an excellent
opportunity to consider just what it is about conflicts that makes
them problematic. According to <a href="http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/11/10/news/conflict-alleged-on-poli…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Albuquerque <i>Journal</i> on Saturday</a>, the chair of
Albuquerque's Police Oversight Commission also directs the auxiliary