Is the partisanship of local government elections a government ethics
issue? I think it is, partly.<br>
<br>

<b>A Good Discussion of a Possible Conflict</b><br>
It's good to see ethics discussions where both sides have good
arguments to make. According to <a href="http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100513/PUB0…; target="”_blank">an

Misinformation is rampant in local government ethics. And the less
people understand it, the easier it is for the misinformation to be
taken at face value.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=6168&quot; target="”_blank">an article
in yesterday's <i>Dispatch</i></a>, in Columbus, a city of 24,000 in eastern

I was reminded today that Sen. Arlen Specter, who recently switched
from the Republican party to the Democratic party, voted against Elena
Kagan's appointment as solicitor-general. He now appears likely to support her
appointment to the Supreme Court. This raised the issue in my
mind:  is it
ever right for an elected official to vote on an appointment on purely
partisan grounds?<br>
<br>
Not surprisingly, the same issue arose this week at the local level, in

Last September, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/palm-beach-county-business-coalition-…; target="”_blank”">a
blog post</a> about an ethics initiative in Palm Beach County, Florida.
A response to numerous scandals, it featured an ethics pledge,
primarily for government officials, and a successful attempt to get an
independent ethics commission and inspector general for the county

This is a follow-up to yesterday's blog post on ethics fines. This
week, I've been reading Karen
Pryor's bible on positive training, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Shoot-Dog-Teaching-Training/dp/1860542387/re…; target="”_blank”"><i>Don't Shoot the Dog: The New Art of
Teaching and Training</i></a> (Bantam, 1999).<br>
<br>

When it comes to ethics fines, it's hard to satisfy anyone. Fines
are usually too large or too small, depending on whom you ask. No one likes to be punished, and no one likes the guilty to get off easy. So what is an ethics
commission to do?<br>
<br>
This week there have been two newspaper articles featuring opposite
ends of the fine spectrum.<br>
<br>

According to <a href="http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-05-03/story/push-toughened-lobb…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Jacksonville <i>Times-Union</i></a> this week, former
Jacksonville council member and current lobbyist Ginny Myrick said, in
response to lobbying reforms suggested by Jacksonville ethics officer,
and City Ethics' president, Carla Miller, that (not exact words) "it is

Back in January, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/government-employees-and-class-except…; target="”_blank”">I
wrote about</a> the California Supreme Court's decision in a criminal
conflict of interest prosecution against members of a San Diego pension
board. In that post, I wrote about how to solve the problem that led to the case's dismissal: local government

<b>Update:</b> May 12, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-ethics-reform-broward-20100504,0,4517356…; target="”_blank”">an
article in Tuesday's <i>Sun-Sentinel<i></a>, Broward County (FL) Commissioner Ilene