City Related

There was <a href="http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2010/05/17/opinion/483660.txt&quot; target="”_blank">a
fascinating editorial</a> in the Waterbury (CT) <i>Republican-American</i>
yesterday. The editorial turns anti-government anger against the idea of a local government ethics program, and yet it has some valuable things
to say about government ethics. Here's an edited version of it:<br>
<ul>

Is the partisanship of local government elections a government ethics
issue? I think it is, partly.<br>
<br>

Misinformation is rampant in local government ethics. And the less
people understand it, the easier it is for the misinformation to be
taken at face value.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=6168&quot; target="”_blank">an article
in yesterday's <i>Dispatch</i></a>, in Columbus, a city of 24,000 in eastern

Back in January, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/government-employees-and-class-except…; target="”_blank”">I
wrote about</a> the California Supreme Court's decision in a criminal
conflict of interest prosecution against members of a San Diego pension
board. In that post, I wrote about how to solve the problem that led to the case's dismissal: local government

Failure to disclose or to recuse oneself, even when it is not legally
required, can lead to some big headaches, as can be seen in Portland,
OR, where a city commissioner voted on a grant to a non-profit
organization where his girlfriend works. Also interesting in this case
is the commissioner's use of personal ethics rather than professional,
government ethics in making his judgment calls.<br>
<br>

According to <a href="http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2010/05/03/news/doc4bdf1580b069e…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's <i>Morning Journal</i>,</a> the Law Director of Lorain,
OH (a city of 70,000), advising a council member, said, “If his
employer had a direct financial interest, he would have a conflict. But
it does not.”<br>
<br>

Many government lawyers feel that the rules of professional conduct are
sufficient to keep them ethical. Because of this, they sometimes seek
to be excluded from an ethics commission's jurisdiction (see a <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/lawyer-exceptions-and-preferential-tr…; target="”_blank”">recent
blog post</a>) and more often argue that the attorney discipline system

A no-bid or improperly bid contract cannot help but create an appearance of
impropriety. And yet not only do elected officials keep defending them,
but they also refuse to acknowledge the appearance of impropriety that
surrounds every one of them, especially when elected officials and
their family members are involved. Here are two current examples, one
in Dallas, the other in Richmond, KY, a city of 33,000 about 90 miles
from Churchill Downs.<br>
<br>

According to <a href="http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100413/OPINION/100419839?tc=ar&q…; target="”_blank”">an
editorial
in the <i>Press Democrat</i>,</a> the city council in Santa Rosa
(CA), a city of about 150,000 north of San Francisco, has postponed
consideration of an ordinance requiring city lobbyists to register,
supposedly due to complaints from nonprofits who do not want to pay the

<br><h6>(illustration from illegalsigns.ca, Toronto)</h6><br>
<br>
I haven't mentioned billboard companies in my blog. It's about time.
Billboard companies can be a serious source of apparent impropriety
and corruption in local government. And this is an important time for
them, because things are changing in the billboard world. It's no
longer mostly about old-fashioned billboards along highways. It's
digital supergraphics on buildings and all sorts of 21st-century