Model Code

A difficult aspect of government ethics is the percentage of a company
that must be owned by a government official in order for there to be a
conflict of interest. The figure chosen for ethics codes is usually 5%.<br>

<h3>Areas to check:</h3>
<ol>
<li>Using office for private gain</li>
<li>using organization resources for personal purposes</li>
<li>soliciting gifts or accepting gifts from persons doing business with the organization</li>
<li>seeking or accepting private compensation for doing one's work (gratuities)</li>
<li>soliciting political contributions or political activity from subordinates</li>

<h2>How to use the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (FSG) to establish or strengthen ethics programs</h2>

A former chancellor of Maricopa Community College in Phoenix, Arizona continued to work for the college on contract, while also having a business on the side that did business with the college on a no-bid basis. The business was set up by the college when he was chancellor and was given to him a few months after he retired.

This is the place to discuss negotiating with unions regarding penalties that apply to their municipal employee members. This is a sensitive area, where open discussion could be especially helpful to preventing friction by considering union perspectives and requirements as part of the process of preparating or amending an ethics code.

Some municipalities limit some provisions to certain officials, so that, for instance, employees do not have to go through the same level of annual disclosure as officials do, or only officials and employees dealing with contracts, development, zoning, etc. need file annual disclosure forms. This is the place to discuss different levels of application of an ethics code's provisions to different levels and types of official and employee.

This is the place to share your experiences with and thoughts about problems faced in passing or improving municipal ethics codes, and possible solutions to these problems.

This is the place to discuss additional conflict of interest provisions. Below are some comments added at the end of 100, but there are several more such provisions that can be found in ethics codes. What are your thoughts about and experiences with other conflict provisions? How do you think it is best to deal with city attorney conflicts when those conflicts are not dealt with clearly in their rules of professional conduct?

False statements are a means of unfairly manipulating a situation in one's own favor. Please share your thoughts about this problem and your experiences with attempts to solve it through an ethics code or otherwise.