<br>
I don't normally deal with purely campaign finance issues, but this
gambit is too good (or too bad) to pass by. The perpetrator of the
gambit is our old friend Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ.<br>
<br>

The Kansas City, MO ethics commission situation is a mess. Last month,
I wrote about the problem that arose regarding EC members who made
campaign contributions to candidates over whom they had jurisdiction,
leading to two resignations. Soon after, the council prohibited EC
members from making contributions, and two more members resigned, leaving
only three members. But that's only the icing on the cake.<br>
<br>

Whistleblower provisions are extremely important to government ethics, but
poorly worded ethics provisions can undermine even the best
whistleblower provisions, especially in unscrupulous hands. One such ethics provision is the confidential
information provision.<br>
<br>
A nurse at a Winker County, TX hospital was charged

<p>Below are the opinions of two candidates running in a primary for a
seat on the Effingham County, GA commission, which perfectly present
two very different views of local government ethics, one
pseudo-religious (people are good or bad), the other professional
(people
need guidance):</p>

Here's a clever way to abuse the advisory opinion process. A few months
after conduct begins, seek advice from the ethics commission. After the EC tells you it's okay, increase the amount of conduct so much that the advice is no
longer relevant, and then point to the advice in defense of the
conduct. Finally, refuse to provide information about the extent of the
conduct, so that no one can provide hard evidence that there is truly a change
in the extent of the conduct.<br>
<br>

What responsibility does a candidate have to check on those who make
contributions to his or her campaign? Is there a greater responsibility
when the candidate is running for a law enforcement position, from
sheriff to D.A. to judge?<br>
<br>
These questions were raised with respect to a situation in Dallas County, where the
sheriff accepted large contributions from two convicted felons,

What do you do when an ethics commission is moribund? Sadly, few people
know and few people care. That is the norm. Rarely does an official
complain publicly, "I have no one to give me good ethics advice." She
just goes to the city or county attorney, or makes the decision
herself. Rarely does anyone complain that there is no ethics training
or nowhere to file an ethics complaint. And certainly no official
complains that he doesn't have to file a financial disclosure form
anymore.<br>
<br>

The usual image we get when we hear about a government official getting
something free
from a contractor is of a new kitchen or driveway. But free services
can
also be invisible, like legal advice and other professional service.<br>
<br>

It's important not to have pension board members with serious conflicts
of
interest, such as a personal interest in the board's investments,
or acting as providers of investment products (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/pension-board-reform-california&quot; target="”_blank”">my
blog
post</a> on California reforms prohibiting such conflicts).<br>
<br>

<b>Update:</b> August 9, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
You've got to hand it to them:  Broward County (FL) commissioners don't
give up. Some of them have fought and fought against the prospect of
having <a href="http://www.broward.org/EthicsCommission/Documents/CodeofEthics2010%20-%…; target="”_blank”">a
new ethics code</a>, written by the county ethics commission. August 10