City Related

In May I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/745">a blog post</a> about a so-called ethics emergency in Corpus Christi,
declared by a lame-duck council at its last meeting. This so-called emergency was the excuse for pushing through ethics
reforms without running them by the city's ethics commission or allowing public discussion. The new
council quickly suspended the reforms, pending review by the ethics
commission.<br>
<br>

"I have counseled many individuals and companies grappling with
investigations, but this is the first time I've provided this type of
advice to a municipality." When I saw this quotation in <a href="http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202433051829&quot; target="”_blank”">the <i>National Law Journal</i></a>, I thought, "Yeah, that's because municipalities aren't investigated, people
are."<br>

There's a lot of talk about the lack of government ethics in Albany,
New York State's capital, but not much about the state of government
ethics in the city of Albany itself. In July, the Albany <span>Times-Union</span> ran <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?storyID=816849&quot; target="”_blank”">a
long article </a>on the mayor and the police chief's relationship with

<a href="http://csbj.com/hazlehurst/2009/08/11/mayor-officially-ethical/&quot; target="”_blank”">John
Hazlehurst's observation</a> on the Colorado Springs ethics
commission's dismissal of a complaint against the mayor is valuable

Chicago politicians are endlessly creative. A few weeks ago <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/810&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote</a> about an
alderman on the zoning committee who pushed for zoning changes to help
developers who used his wife as their realtor. It turns out that his
boss, William J. P. Banks, head of the zoning committee, is going to
have a retirement party. The party's guests are being asked to send

<B>Update below</b> (August 10, 2009):<br>
When an official has a conflict of interest, the usual course is to
withdraw from any discussion or vote on the matter. But this is not
always the case. Sometimes a conflict of interest requires that a
responsible official speak up.<br>
<br>

In Jacksonville-- where City Ethics' founder, Carla Miller, is the
Ethics Officer -- the ethics commission is taking the lead in ethics
reform, according to <a href="http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=52806&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> in the Jacksonville <span>Daily
Record. <br>
<br>

It may be midsummer, but it's still a busy season for local government
ethics. Here's how a few local governments are dealing with ethics
reform.<br>
<br>
Palm Beach County commissioners agreed to create an inspector general
and ethics commission, according to <a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/0…; target="”_blank”">an

<b>Update below</b><br>
The only thing worse than stacking ethics commissions with politically
active, and apparently loyal, members is refusing to renew the term of
a member who has been a vocal advocate of government ethics, in other
words, a thorn in the side of officials who do not follow the local
government's ethics codes. Clever officials know that one or two
members of any board can have a strong effect on
what the board does.<br>
<br>

<span>Open Records Requests and
Ethics Proceedings</span><br>
In an unusual twist on the confidentiality of ethics proceedings,
counsel for the Colorado Springs mayor's former client, the person who gave rise to the mayor's apparent conflict of interest, has made an open records
request for all documents related to the ethics proceeding against the