It's amazing how powerless powerful politicians can be. Take New Jersey
state senate president Stephen M. Sweeney. According to <a href="http://www.eagleton.rutgers.edu/news/newsstories/10-01-24_CourierPost.p…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the <i>Courier-Post</i></a>, Sweeney is not only senate president,
but also director of his county's council (called the board of

<b>Can they convict him simply for failing to disclose information when
he had no duty to disclose? No Alaska law required it, and there's no
federal statute that requires it, so what did he do wrong?</b><br>
<br>
— Donald Ayer, attorney for former Alaska state representative Bruce
Weyhrauch (December 2009) (taken from <a href="http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=12703600&quot; target="”_blank”">an article on

<i>Image by Joe Wu</i><br>
<br>
Following up on <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/transparency-anonymity-and-moral-cour…
previous blog post</a>, here is the first of two examples
of local government ethics matters involving anonymity outside of an
internet context.<br>
<br>

In
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/harassment-and-intimidation-governmen…
recent
blog post on Maricopa County</a>, I referred to the problem of
harassment and intimidation by government officials against other
government
officials and employees. I have also referred in the past to the even
more
serious problem of harassment, intimidation, and ad hominem attacks by

According to <a href="http://www.projo.com/ri/johnston/content/maselli_indictment_06-19-10_1S…; target="”_blank”">an
article
in the Providence <i>Journal</i></a>, <span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody">a Rhode Island state senator has been indicted on
federal charges that he falsified documents to get mortgages and an

What do the BP oil spill and local government ethics have in common?
Kenneth Feinberg.<br>
<br>
This week, Feinberg was chosen to work out the BP oil spill claims, and
<a href="http://www.maricopa.gov/Clk_Board/BoardDocument.aspx?ID=6e52df47-3adb-4…; target="”_blank”">today
he
is expected to be hired</a> to work out the claims against Maricopa

Ethics commission leaders are falling like flies in Hawaii. <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/ec-members-aiding-or-supporting-polit…; target="”_blank”">I
recently wrote</a> about Honolulu's EC chair resigning in order to be
involved in a mayoral candidate's campaign (he had already been involved in
other campaigns). And last Wednesday, the state EC fired its

It's a good thing, especially in this age of fiscal austerity, when a
local government affair, such as a retirement party, is not paid for
out of public funds. But retirement parties, within reason, are part of
any organization's calendar. Better they be reasonable and paid for by
taxpayers than the alternative.<br>
<br>
That alternative is having local government affairs paid for by those
doing business with the agency, as appears to have happened in Atlanta,

Most local governments leave open meeting and public records matters to
the state. But often the slowness and expense of the state enforcement
process, as well as weaknesses in state law (e.g., too short a period
for noticing agendas, vague guidelines on filling FOI requests), can
mean that open meeting and public records laws are insufficiently
effective or are ignored.<br>
<br>
Historically, enforcement depends largely on the news media, but with
their cuts in budget and staff, they are often not doing the job

<b>Update:</b> June 18, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
In a memo dated June 14, 2010 (attached; see below), the Broward County
(FL) county attorney told the <a href="http://www.broward.org/Commission/Pages/default.aspx&quot; target="”_blank”">county
commission</a> that lobbying provisions in the county ethics