City Related

A trash board member attends a homeowners association meeting to
talk about potential
changes to the city’s residential trash service. Also in attendance is a representative from the company
that has the city's landfill contract. After the trash board member
makes a short speech, she leaves the meeting and asks the company
representative to answer questions from the audience. This was apparently not
planned.<br>
<br>
The city's trash collector, under a contract up for renewal and for

<b>Update</b>: September 27, 2011<br>

It's fascinating how different issues are important to local government
officials in difference places at different times. I couldn't say that
officials will always dig in their heels and fight this ethics
provision, or that another ethics provision never raises an eyebrow.<br>
<br>
Take Broward County, FL, for example. After numerous arrests and
convictions of local officials, the county commission passed a new
ethics ordinace, and the county's citizens voted to have this ordinance

Just because it happens in New York City doesn't mean it will happen in
the average city or, especially, town. Right? No, it can happen, only the numbers will probably be smaller. Two situations
described in today's New York <i>Times,</i> both of them effectively centered on the hiring and failure to oversee consultants, are worth knowing about.<br>
<br>

It staggers the imagination how combative local government officials
can sometimes be with respect to ethics commissions. <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/self-interest-and-transparency-local-…; target="”_blank”">A
year ago, I wrote</a> about a former Sioux Falls (SD) council member,
Kermit Staggers, who attacked complaints filed by the city's ethics

An ethics controversy involving the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) has
led to the resignation of four of the seven members of the APS ethics
commission, a failure to replace them, and a threat to the schools'
accreditation status.<br>
<br>

On Friday, the <a href="http://www.louisvilleky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/14CED111-9ACE-4040-BDAF-7CF75F…; target="”_blank”">Louisville
ethics
commission found that a council member intentionally violated</a>

<a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/10-568.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">The
Supreme Court reached a decision today</a> in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/search/node/carrigan&quot; target="”_blank”">the <i>Carrigan</i> case</a>,
and it is nearly unanimous. However, it deals with only one part of the

It's hard to know where to start with a situation in Crescent City, CA,
a town of 7,500 in northern California that has already been the
subject of <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/549&quot; target="”_blank”">a City Ethics
blog post</a>.<br>
<br>
One of the most striking things about the situation is that it is the
first time I have seen an anti-SLAPP-suit defense used successfully against someone who

<b>Electing EC Members</b><br>
Is electing an ethics commission a good idea? I had never heard of an
elected EC until this week, when <a href="http://www.pbpindiantribe.com/news.aspx?id=594&quot; target="”_blank”">I read that the
Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, an Indian nation in Kansas, canceled an
EC election</a> for four out of six seats, because there were no
candidates.<br>
<br>