County Related

In <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/location-cogel-meets-midst-serious-un…; target="”_blank”">a
recent
blog post</a>, I listed the suits filed by Maricopa County's
sheriff Joe Arpaio and county attorney Andrew Thomas against other
county officials during the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws conference
right in the heart of Maricopa County.<br>
<br>

After many months of deliberation (and <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/palm-beach-county-business-coalition-…
blog post</a>), yesterday the Palm Beach Board of County Commissioners
passed three ordinances, establishing a new <a href="http://www.pbcgov.com/pubInf/Agenda/20091215/4d.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">ethics and

COGEL (Council on Governmental Ethics Laws) annual conferences are often held at a time and place where there are
serious government ethics issues. Last year, the conference was held in
Chicago the day Gov. Blagojevich was arrested. This year, the
conference was held in Maricopa County, AZ, where few days go by when
there isn't a serious government ethics issue. Maricopa County has got
to be the most dysfunctional county in the U.S.<br>
<br>

It's been a year since the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL),
the association of state and local government ethics professionals, met
in Cook County, IL. But the day before COGEL meets in Scottdale, AZ,
it's time to take another look at one of America's most unethical
counties, which includes Chicago.<br>
<br>
This time the focus is on the county's townships. The problem is summed
up professionally in the abstract to a paper published last year. It's

<br>
Is it a conflict for a council member to be an officer of a
neighborhood association? This issue arose recently in Tulsa, according
to <a href="http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=16&articleid=2009…; target="”_blank”">an
article this week in the <i>Tulsa World</i></a>. <br>
<br>

There are many right and wrong ways to select an ethics commission. The
rightest ways <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/770&quot; target="”_blank”">take the selection process out of the hands</a> of anyone who
could possibly come before the EC, because that places a conflict of
interest at the very center of a process intended to guide and enforce
the responsible handling of conflicts. The rightest ways also prevent

According to <a href="http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2009/11/26/news/doc4b0de71113075929…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the <i>Times-Herald</i></a>, a Montgomery County
(PA) judge ruled that the county commissioners do not have authority to
prohibit employees of the district attorney or sheriff's offices from
participating in political activities or running for office.<br>
<br>

I think it's safe to say that a local government ethics "first" has
occurred in Montgomery County, Maryland. A transgendered council aide
has filed a complaint against the <a href="http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgtmpl.asp?url=/ethics/index.asp&quot; target="”_blank”">county
ethics commission</a> on the grounds that the EC investigated her

One can learn a
lot about local government (and judicial) ethics by listening to local
officials talk about a conflict situation
they're in. Here's one from Dallas County,  where
the district attorney's wife is a political
consultant for the campaigns of seven judges before whom the D.A.'s
office
practices.<br>
<br>

While on the subject of pension boards in California, it's worth
mentioning a new California bill, <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_1551-1600/ab_1584_bill_…; target="”_blank”">Bill
1584</a>, signed into law on October 18. It is an amendment to the
County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (Section 22212.5 of the
Education Code, Sections 20098 and 31528 of the Government Code, with