City Related

According to <a href="http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_Bur…; target="”_blank”">an
article in today's Denton (TX) Record-Chronicle</a>, the Denton (pop.
106,000) council voted 4-2, with the mayor recusing himself, to give
the city's tax collection contract to the mayor's law firm (he is one
of two partners in the four-lawyer firm).<br>
<br>

Back in May, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/432&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote</a>
about the conflict of interest problems in upstate New York local
governments due to the development of wind farms in the area. This
week, New York's Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, issued a Wind Industry
Ethics Code to deal with these problems. Hats off to Cuomo for the
idea, although not for the execution.<br>

Back in June, I did <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/450">a
blog entry</a> on the implications for local governments of a Louisiana
decision that applied the Speech and Debate Clause to ethics
investigations and decisions, effectively preventing state ethics
commissions from investigating or enforcing ethics laws against state
legislators, even if they voted for the ethics provision involved.<br>
<br>

Here's an election story with a conflict of interest angle. In Crescent City, California
(pop. 7,500) on the beautiful California coast up near the Oregon border, the
little city's former finance director is running for clerk.<br>
<br>
According to articles in the <span>Daily
Triplicate</span>, the finance director was <a href="http://www.triplicate.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=5944&quot; target="”_blank”">fired</a>

According to <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/33545244.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Minneapolis-St. Paul <span>Star
Tribune</span></a> this week, the lame-duck mayor of Northfield, MN,
home of Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges, has been charged with five
counts of misconduct by a public official and two counts of conflict of

The federal government's trust deficit today is in worse shape than our federal
budget and current account deficits. Government leaders better jump on the government ethics bandwagon quick, or there could be a serious trust crisis. Here's <a href="http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=965&quot; target="”_blank”">the
latest new from the Harris Polls</a>:<br>
<br>
<ul>

The big news this week on the government ethics front is Alaskan
Senator Ted Stevens' conviction on seven counts of making false
statements on financial disclosure forms, regarding home renovations
paid for by an oil executive.<br>
<br>
But this is only the tip of the iceberg. I've <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/490&quot; target="”_blank”">already written</a> about

Long Island (NY) Railroad (LIRR) retirees are many times more likely to
be on disability than other rail workers, and the New York <span>Times</span> has been focusing on this
story (click <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/l/lon…; target="”_blank”">here</a>

<b>"As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?</b>
--William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, 1871<br>
<br>
<i>see update below</i><br>
<br>
Another of Boss Tweed's famous quotations is, "I don't care who does
the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating." His and other
city bosses' way of controlling politics through parties led to the reform movements of the progressive era, first to

Back in January, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/361&quot; target="”_blank”">a
blog entry</a> focusing on the lack of transparency in the credit
rating business so central to the subprime mortgage mess that has
brought the world economy to its knees. Transparency, it has become
clear, is all important.<br>
<br>