Meredith McGehee wrote<a href="http://www.clcblog.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=399…;
a thought-provoking Campaign Legal Center blog post yesterday</a> about
the upside of election time ethics attacks on opponents.<br>
<br>
"Current political thinking generally laments this development, arguing

Recusal is one of the least well understood aspects of government
ethics. Most people seem to think it is limited to abstaining on a vote
where you have a conflict of interest, and many ethics codes define it
that way, if they require recusal at all.<br>
<br>
But abstention is not sufficient for many reasons. One of them is at

Citizen indifference and lack of participation is the most damaging result of a
lack of trust in government officials. One reason is that a vicious
circle is created. When government officials are untrustworthy, and
especially when they use intimidation to create the sort of fear that
severely cuts into citizen participation, there are fewer people to
watch over them on behalf of the public. This makes government
officials feel more fearless and act more self-serving and more openly
intimidating. And so on.<br>
<br>

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It's always nice to see clever, simple, effective forms of disclosure
that convey the most important information in the most readable,
quickly understandable way. Such a form of disclosure is suggested in <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1676108&quot; target="”_blank”">a
paper published a month ago by Justin Levitt</a>, a professor at Loyola

The term <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_ethics&quot; target="”_blank”">"situational
ethics"</a> derives from a particular theory of a priest named Joseph
Fletcher, but it is more generally understood to mean dealing with
ethics in terms of a particular situation and particular goals
(ends-oriented ethics). In other words, it is ethics that allows for
different rules in different circumstances, but also for self-serving,

Most people define "ethics" in a way that doesn't really fit into the
scheme of government ethics, which focuses on conflicts of interest.
Even <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/definitions&quot; target="”_blank”">the definitions
section</a> of this website defines "ethics" as "a major branch of
philosophy that involves analysis of right conduct."<br>
<br>

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/stamford-ethics-controversy-involving…; target="”_blank”">I
recently wrote about a situation</a> in Stamford, CT in which probable
cause was found based on a policy declaration rather than an
enforceable ethics provision. That situation appeared to involve a
misunderstanding, with a unanimous ethics commission finding probable

Four current attempts at ethics reform show the incredible variety of
approaches and ideas of what government ethics is.<br>
<br>
<b>Prohibiting County Employees from Contracting with the County</b><br>
According to <a href="http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/articles/2010/10/12/local//local02.txt&q…; target="”_blank”">an

Over-reaction to an alleged ethics violation can be as bad as
under-reaction. In Bergen County, NJ, after one of seven <a href="http://www.co.bergen.nj.us/freeholders/default.html&quot; target="”_blank”">freeholders
</a>(the county council), at his first meeting, voted to continue to
keep county funds in a bank owned by the parent of the company he works for, an
ethics complaint was filed and then the county administrator called on

I chose to specialize in local government ethics because this is where
it all starts. This is where the individuals who become our
representatives experience their first unethical environment, become
team players, learn the rules of the game, and begin to feel a special
entitlement.<br>
<br>
One good thing about election time is that we sometimes get the back stories of
individuals running for higher office. We get to see how they started. One such individual is Carl