City Related

A few local government ethics issues come together in the story
behind the arrest today of 44 people in a political corruption and
international money laundering ring based in New Jersey. The story is
best told, so far, in the<a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nj/press/press/files/pdffiles/bidrig0723%20re…; target="”_blank”">
press release</a> of the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.<br>
<br>

While so many local governments don't take conflicts seriously enough
to require recusal, some take conflicts too seriously, and overreact.
This appears to be what happened in Elizabethtown (NY), according to <a href="http://www.pressrepublican.com/homepage/local_story_201114804.html?keyw…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's <i>Press-Republican</i></a>.<br>
<br>

In <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/806&quot; target="”_blank”">a blog post</a>
yesterday, I noted that North Carolina was soon to require local
governments to pass ethics codes. I've now found out more about the
proposed law, and it is disappointing, to say the least.<br>
<br>

What just happened in San Diego, according to <a href="http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jul/15/1m15ethics00931-mayo…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's<span> Union-Tribune</a>,</span>
is a lesson for local government ethics commission members,
especially commission chairs, and even more especially chairs who speak

Last week, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/800&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote</a>
about municipal corruption scandals in Montreal. This week, I'm happy
to be able to write about a report requested by the province of Quebec,
which determined that the province's municipalities should all have a
code of ethics (only about 10% do now), that the largest cities and the
counties should have ethics commissioners, and that financial

<b>See update below:</b><br>
An issue that arises in many local governments involves campaign
contributions from local government employees, which often appear to be
coerced or required, that is, they appear to result from a misuse of
office by elected officials. Often, it appears that the giving occurs
because employees are concerned about keeping their jobs. This
concern includes concern about retaliation as well as concern about
what will happen if the candidate loses.<br>
<br>

<b>Ethics Reform and Ethics
Environments</b><br>
This weekend, the <span>Press-Enterprise</span>
ran <a href="http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_…; target="”_blank”">an
excellent editorial </a>about ethics reform in San Bernardino County.
Not only do the editors recognize that watered-down, "symbolic" ethics

<b>Update</b> - July 31, 2009 - see below<br>
In my April <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/707&quot; target="”_blank”">blog post</a>
about the legislative immunity defense made by a former Baltimore
council member (now the mayor), I felt that her arguments didn't have a
chance. Well, I was wrong. I was wrong primarily because I thought that
a state prosecutor would be determined to see the case through and,

We here in the U.S. like to think of Canadians as like us, but better.
More honest, less greedy, more accepting of diversity, etc. And they
pay for it by being dull.<br>
<br>
In the realm of government ethics, this sadly isn't true. At least in
Montreal. According to <a href="http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13905…; target="”_blank”">a

I don't like seeing conflicts of interest discussed improperly in the
context of an election. Elections are a good time to educate the public
about issues, but when government ethics is used for partisan purposes,
it undermines both the public's understanding and their trust in
elected officials.<br>
<br>