Quebec Report Recommends Ethics Codes for All Local Governments; North Carolina Might Soon Be Requiring Codes, Too

Last week, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/800&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote</a>
about municipal corruption scandals in Montreal. This week, I'm happy
to be able to write about a report requested by the province of Quebec,
which determined that the province's municipalities should all have a
code of ethics (only about 10% do now), that the largest cities and the
counties should have ethics commissioners, and that financial
disclosure and ethics training should be required. Contractors would be
covered under the codes.<br>
<br>

Ethics commissioners would make recommendations to councils rather than
act themselves or with commissions, but councils' decisions could be
appealed to the province level by both respondents and citizens.<br>
<br>
This information comes from <a href="http://www.ledevoir.com/2009/07/15/259092.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an article
yesterday in </a><span><a href="http://www.ledevoir.com/2009/07/15/259092.html&quot; target="”_blank”">Le Devoir</a>,</span>
which I had <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=htt…; target="”_blank”">translated
into English</a> by Google Translation. For those who read some French,
putting the cursor on the English makes the French original of that
paragraph appear. The translation is adequate, but sometimes comical.<br>
<br>
Montreal's opposition is cheering the provincial report and calling for
the city to quickly toughen its ethics code, according to <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/07/15/montreal-ethics-repo…; target="”_blank”">a
CBC article</a> yesterday.<br>
<br>
I will try to find the report and add a link to it here.<br>
<br>
Quebec is not alone. Last week, a House bill requiring local government
codes of ethics received initial approval by the North Carolina Senate.
A final vote is supposed to come this week, but I haven't found any
word of it yet. The UNC School of Government is working on a model code
that, according to <a href="http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/state/wednesday-at-the-north-car…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Rocky Mount <i>Telegram</i></a>,</span>
"some groups can follow." Hopefully, more on this will appear soon.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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