<b>Note:</b> I completely rewrote this post after Mark Davies set me straight about the state law on which disclosure forms an official must file.<br>
<br>

There is nothing more important in local government ethics than timely,
independent, professional ethics advice. And there is no bigger problem
in local
government ethics than poor ethics advice, especially that given by
local government attorneys who (1) do not have a full understanding of
government ethics, especially the fact that its rules are minimum
requirements, which means that a strict interpretation of the language is inappropriate in providing ethics advice, (2) are

How many wrongs does it take to make a right?<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-wasserman-rubin-resigns-cha…; target="”_blank”">a
<i>Sun-Sentinel</i>
article</a>, a county commissioner in Broward County, home
of Ft. Lauderdale, resigned on Tuesday after being arrested on seven

A situation in the city of Alameda, CA once again points out that government officials dealing with the possibly unethical conduct of other government officials is
not a good thing.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/07/MNT31EAP1D…; target="”_blank”">an
article today in the San Francisco <i>Chronicle</i></a>, the city of Alameda

When it comes to government ethics, too often lawyers are nowhere to be
seen, unless they are the ones saying that unethical conduct is legal.
Far too often, lawyers do not use their knowledge, their strong, independent
personalities, and their professional
obligations to stand up to, or at least question, those acting
unethically.<br>
<br>
A horrible example of this, a cautionary tale that every law student
should read in the first year, occurred when all the lawyers in the

<br><br>
Things are moving along well with the Palm Beach County ethics
initiative, which I've written about in earlier blog posts (<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/palm-beach-county-business-coalition-…; target="”_blank”">1</a> 

"Ceremonial function" is one of those terms that is found in many local
government ethics codes (but not the <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/full-text-model-ethics-code&quot; target="”_blank”">City
Ethics Model Code</a>). However, it is rarely defined except, occasionally, in advisory opinions. The term is generally used to exclude certain gifts from
being either disclosed or considered gifts at all. The result is lots

On Independence Day weekend, it's worth remembering that independence
does not come cheap, and that there are some things that are more
important than independence.<br>
<br>
One of those things is the public trust. There is a serious cost to our society
when government officials place their independence from ethics
enforcement above the public trust, that is, when government
officials insist on legislative immunity.
And there is a cost to officials, too:  their trial not

Honesty, although central to ethics, is not central to government
ethics. The reason for this is that honesty, or falsity, is so complex,
it is almost impossible to define or enforce. And first amendment
freedom of speech places so many limitations on government regulation
of expression short of libel (the intentional attempt to falsely
destroy another's reputation). Life is full of mistakes
and misreadings, half-truths and kernels of truth, and these do not
constitute falsity. Honesty comes in more shades of gray than a

The great majority of what is written about legislative redistricting
focuses on state and federal redistricting. But many cities, even some
towns, have districts too, and resetting district boundaries is an
important political process designed to prevent public participation and to undermine public trust.<br>
<br>
<em> </em>In January, an advisory board of experts and representatives
of good government groups got together to articulate principles of