Patricia Salkin's Local Government Ethics Blogs
For a year and a half, in her <a href="http://lawoftheland.wordpress.com/category/ethics/" target="”_blank”">Law of the
Land blog</a>, <a href="http://www.albanylaw.edu/sub.php?navigation_id=157&user_id=64" target="”_blank”">Patricia
Salkin</a> has been writing about local government ethics issues in
land use cases. And since December 2008, she has been writing
occasional <a href="http://imlablog.wordpress.com/category/ethics/" target="”_blank”">local government
ethics posts</a> for the International Municipal Lawyers Association
Local Government Blog. With <a href="http://www.scu.edu/ethics-center/ethicsblog/herhonor.cfm" target="”_blank”">Judy
Nadler's blog</a> idle since November, Ms. Salkin is the only other
game in towns (<span>sic</span>).<br>
<br>
And it's a well-played game. Salkin is Associate Dean, Professor of
Law, and Director of the <a href="http://www.albanylaw.edu/sub.php?navigation_id=668" target="”_blank”">Government
Law Center</a> at Albany Law School. She does an excellent job of
combining her specialties in land use law and government ethics.
Besides her blog and numerous land use law publications, she is the
author of several law review<a href="http://www.governmentlaw.org/eth_govt.php" target="”_blank”"> articles and essays</a>
on government ethics, and a second edition of her edited volume, <a href="http://www.abanet.org/abastore/index.cfm?section=main&fm=Product.AddToC…; target="”_blank”">Ethical
Standards in the Public Sector: A Guide for Government Lawyers,
Clients, and Public Official</a>s (Am. Bar Assoc.) came out recently
(if you believe the publisher) or is scheduled to come out next month
(if you believe <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ethical-Standards-Public-Sector-Second/dp/1604420…; target="”_blank”">Amazon.com</a>,
where the overpriced book is substantially cheaper; see <a href="http://www.abanet.org/abastore/index.cfm?section=main&fm=Product.AddToC…; target="”_blank”">the ABA site</a> for the book's table of contents).<br>
<br>
Our blogs rarely cover the same material. Salkin's focus is primarily
on judicial decisions, and her tone is far more lawyerly than mine. In
one case where we dealt with the same material, New York's Wind
Industry Ethics Code, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/551">I
critiqued</a> the language of the code and she focused on
jurisdictional issues. She also went into more detail on this code in <a href="http://www.governmentlaw.org/files/SalkinMuniLawyerWin09.pdf" target="”_blank”">an
essay</a> published in the Winter 2009 issue of New York State's <span>Municipal Lawyer Newsletter. </span>The
essay's subtitle is "A Back-Door Approach to Regulating Municipal
Ethics." It's very worthwhile reading.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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