City Related

There are times when withdrawing from a vote is in fact not a
responsible act, but rather an act in one's own self-interest. In such
a case, a responsible official should participate and do what is in the
public interest.<br>
<br>

According to <a href="http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_17368046&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in Friday's San Bernardino <i>Sun</i></a>, a San Bernardino city council member accused
of a conflict of interest resigned. He owned a towing company whose
major source of income is a contract with the city. The contract was

Yes, boys and girls, it's time for another episode of every government
ethics lover's favorite tale, Vernon and the Dragons. In the last
episode, back in November, the dragon known as Los Angeles County was
considering a proposal to require the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon,_California&quot; target="”_blank”">city of Vernon</a> to competitively bid housing
for the city, which houses very few people, and mostly friends of government

<b>Update:</b> February 10, 2011 (see below)<br>
<br>
Trenton's city attorney and mayor have been going through an elaborate
dance in the last week, since the city attorney decided to void a
contract between the city and a law firm that made a large contribution

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/getting-green-bay-ethics-program-supe…; target="”_blank”">Last
month, I wrote</a> about how the Green Bay ethics board hadn't met much
more than the Packers had won Super Bowls. Well, now that the Packers
have won another, it's time for the ethics board to meet again (the
last time it met was in 1999).<br>
<br>

According to <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/news/114992909_Clifton_ruling_due_on_ethics_…; target="”_blank”">an
article in <i>The Record</i> this week</a>, a Clifton, New Jersey council
member is being accused of dealing irresponsibly with a conflict by
participating in a discussion about, although not voting on, the
reappointment of two members of the city's zoning board. The conflict

In my recent blog posts about Gwinnett County, especially <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/gwinnett-county-ethics-reform-i-failu…; target="”_blank”">the
first</a>, I
spoke about how the problem of not following formal processes is a
serious government ethics problem, but is often not covered by ethics
codes. The Massachusetts Ethics Commission has recently entered into

According to<a href="http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/featured-news/ethics-charges-have-been-…; target="”_blank”">
an article in Tuesday's Hartford <i>Advocate</i></a>, a complaint has been
filed with Hartford's ethics commission by a council member against the
former corporation counsel on the grounds that he had taken a job with

Sometimes a conflict situation makes you take a fresh look at common
ethics provisions. This is true of a matter that has arisen in
Poughkeepsie, New York (pronounced Pah-kip'-see), home of Vassar
College, according to <a href="http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110125/NEWS01/101250320/De…; target="”_blank”">an
article

There are several problems with Houston's new ethics provisions, in
addition to what I pointed out in my last blog post. Some of them are
typical, some of them are unusual. The ethics reform ordinance is attached;
see below; <a href="http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=10123&stateId=43&stateN…; target="”_blank”">the
old
ethics ordinance can be found by clicking here</a> and scrolling down