City Related

<b>Updates below</b> (latest on August 11, 2009)<br>
There's an interesting situation in Colorado Springs. According to <a href="http://www.gazette.com/articles/city-53971-mayor-marshall.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an

<b>Update below</b><br>
An ethics emergency was declared in Corpus Christi on Tuesday,
according to <a href="http://www.kiiitv.com/news/local/44895897.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> on the KIII TV website. During the final meeting of the
council before the council membership changes post-election, the

One great thing about the Internet is that it provides a clear picture
of how people respond to officials who do not deal responsibly with
their conflicts of interest, and how such irresponsible actions can
undermine people's trust in government.<br>
<br>

Technicalities should play little role in discussions about local
government ethics. But because there are ethics laws, people
unashamedly talk about ethics technicalities. They see ethics laws as
like any other law, not as minimal requirements that deserve more
thinking about what's appropriate than about what's legal.<br>
<br>

Earlier this week, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/737&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote</a>
about an application of Louisiana ethics law that I felt was too
severe. Today I'm going to write about a Louisiana ethics provision, a fairly typical gift provision that applies to local government officials,
which is too weak, because it has a big loophole in it.<br>
<br>

In Louisiana, local government officials cannot do any sort of business
with anyone who does business with their local government. This
position is supported by a settlement reached with an Alexandria
council member, according to <a href="http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20090505/NEWS01/905050319/-1/NEWSFRO…; target="”_blank”">an

In March, I started out <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/684&quot; target="”_blank”">a
blog entry</a> by saying that "I thought I might write a piece about
using ethics
complaints for the purpose of political harassment" with respect to
Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. But then I discovered that the particular
ethics complaint was legitimate, and talked about the complaint itself
and how it applied to local government situations.<br>

For a year and a half, in her <a href="http://lawoftheland.wordpress.com/category/ethics/&quot; target="”_blank”">Law of the
Land blog</a>, <a href="http://www.albanylaw.edu/sub.php?navigation_id=157&user_id=64&quot; target="”_blank”">Patricia
Salkin</a> has been writing about local government ethics issues in

Last month, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/696&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote</a>
about problems involving municipal bond sales and advice in Tennessee.
Yesterday, the state comptroller wrote <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/apr/30/guest-column-meltdown-…; target="”_blank”">a guest column</a> explaining what

Two days ago, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/726&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote</a>
about a Chicago Heights (IL) situation where two council members who
work under a third council member were in a position to vote for their
boss to be the city's mayor. A suit brought by a group of local