Lawyer-legislators are extremely creative people. The latest use of
their creativity is to argue that ethics boards cannot require
disclosure of a conflict of interest that arises from legal
representation because they have no jurisdiction over the practice of
law. Only the state Supreme Court has that jurisdiction.<br>
<br>
The lawyer-legislator in this matter is state senator Rob Marionneaux
of Louisiana, a state whose ethics code applies to local governments.

<b>Update:</b> October 8, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
There's a fascinating ethics controversy going on in Stamford, CT which
raises a number of issues involving time limits, the enforcement of declarations of policy, intimidation, and the roles of ethics commissions and inspectors general.<br>
<br>

Two years ago, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/569&quot; target="”_blank”">a
blog post</a> about a book by Lewis Hyde entitled <i>The Gift</i>, which had a
lot to say, philosophically, about gift-giving and -receiving, an issue
of relevance to government ethics. I just

<b>An Active EC Is a Good Thing</b><br>
Local officials often say that because there are no
complaints to or advisory opinions by their ethics commissions, their town
or city government does not have ethics problems. Actually, it's the other way
around. Local governments with active ethics commissions, especially
dealing with advisory opinions, are more likely to have healthy ethical
environments. It shows that people trust the ethics commission, it
shows that people are thinking about ethics issues, and it supplies

I make a great effort to be nonpartisan in choosing what and whom I
write about. I am an unaffiliated voter who
believes in nonpartisan local government. But yesterday, the Republican
Party took a strong stand against government ethics and, in its most
important statement in years, totally ignored it.<br>
<br>

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/poor-draftmanship-and-poor-ethics&quot; target="”_blank”">When
I wrote about the disclosure controversy in Suffolk County</a> back in
July, I didn't realize that another interesting ethics issue was going
on there. In late June, the county legislature had instituted an
investigation of the county ethics commission. One reason for this

In Milwaukee County, according to <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/103255159.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in Sunday's <i>Journal-Sentinel</i></a>, a county supervisor is
seeking to add to <a href="http://www.milwaukeecounty.org/ETHICSBOARD8460.htm&quot; target="”_blank”">the county

Those who, like me, are fascinated by Vernon, California, the ultimate
company town, with an ethical environment that breaks nearly all the rules, will be happy to know that it was given a long treatment in <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0919-fortress-vernon-20100918,0…; target="”_blank”">a
front-page
article in Sunday's Los Angeles <i>Times</i></a>. There are no

I'm always fascinated by the myriad ways in which local governments
approach ethics reform. <a href="http://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/League-of-Women-Voters-Green…; target="”_blank”">An
article
in the Greenwich <i>Time</i> last week sheds some light</a> on the
state of ethics reform in
Greenwich, CT. (Disclosure: my brother lives in Greenwich, but is not

The Supreme Court has been nibbling away at campaign finance laws for
years now, but the one thing all but one of the justices agree on is
that requiring the disclosure of contributions does not infringe on
first amendment speech rights.<br>
<br>