City Related

Are loans to businesses that do business with a city sufficient to
create a conflict of interest? This is the question that has been
batted around recently in Washington, D.C., according to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/14/AR20090…; target="”_blank”">an

The new year is a good time for ethics commissions and officers to look
ahead to 2009 and set goals and priorities. According to <a href="http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=51613&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in today's Jacksonville <span>Daily
Record</span></a>, this is exactly what the Jacksonville (FL) ethics
commission did at its first meeting of the new year. As did the city's

Sacramento recently had an interesting situation, which set off
accusations of conflicts of interest. According to <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/734/story/1488169.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an article in the
Sacramento <span>Bee</span></a>, the
newly-elected weak mayor came into office with a volunteer transition
team, consisting primarily of people who have business with the city or

The Baltimore mayor's attorney has, only days after <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/606&quot; target="”_blank”">his client was
indicted</a>, given a course to drafters of local government ethics codes
on how not to define "doing business" with a local government.<br>

When the entire ethics commission of a major county resigns,
something is seriously wrong. This is what recently happened in Jackson
County, MO, home of Kansas City and Independence.<br>

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/463&quot; target="”_blank”">Last June, I wrote</a>
about the state prosecutor's investigation of Baltimore Mayor Sheila
Dixon, which was being taken before a grand jury. I focused on a series
of ethical problems Mayor Dixon had in her pre-mayoral days and how
they built toward these more serious alleged offenses. A little more

“There’s no conflict,” the mayor said last night. “It wouldn’t be a
story if his name wasn’t Menino.” (from <a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1143360&quot; target="”_blank”">a
recent Boston <span>Herald</span> article</a>)<br>
<br>

The status of a local government attorney is important. An
external local government attorney, that is, one not employed full-time
by the government, is still seen as the top legal official in town,
someone whose word is effectively law, especially at government
meetings. Such an attorney is also seen as representing the public
interest whenever the government is involved.<br>
<br>
But part-time, external local government attorneys have mouths to feed,
and they are often approached by clients for their expertise and for

Here's an interesting case study from Council Bluffs, IA.
According to <a href="http://www.southwestiowanews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20234973&BRD=2703…; target="”_blank”">an

The situation discussed in the <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/600&quot; target="”_blank”">previous blog entry</a> also
provides a good example of why it is important to have a contract
avoidance provision in a local government ethics code. Here is <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/mc/full#TOC58&quot; target="”_blank”">the one in the City
Ethics Model Code</a>:<br>