Influence. It's a big word in a lot of government ethics laws, and a
word that those who write such laws should think at least twice about.<br>
<br>
As everyone knows, New York Governor David Paterson has been accused by
the NY Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) of having violated the
state's gift ban by asking for and receiving five tickets to the first
game of last year's World Series, at Yankee Stadium. But the reports
are, of course, ignoring the language of the law. Here it is:<br>
<ul>

<a href="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20100303_Report__S__Jersey_auth…; target="”_blank”">An
article
in yesterday's Philadelphia <i>Inquirer</i></a> says that the state's

<br>
New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has an ongoing problem
confusing his job as mayor, his ownership of a big media company, and
his philanthropic activities. One of the symptoms of this problem is
the unusual revolving door he provides for some of his closest advisers.<br>
<br>

<b>Governors Aren't Always Governors</b><br>
The involvement of New York governor David Paterson in his aide's
domestic abuse matter gets right to the heart of government ethics.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/nyregion/03paterson.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in today's New York <i>Times</i></a>, Paterson told a state employee

<b>Update</b>: March 4, 2010<br>
I am placing this update up front because my consideration of the Committee of Seventy's criticism of the Philadelphia ethics board assumed the truth of the Committee's portrayal of the city's retirement law. Sadly, it turns out that it misrepresented the law, saying that the ethics board was unethically employing a loophole, when the ethics board's rehiring of its general counsel is expressly legal according to the retirement law.<br>
<br>

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/cronyism-and-ethics&quot; target="”_blank”">I
recently noted</a> Oakland, CA's odd nepotism ordinance. Well, its <a href="http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/public_ethics/webpage.html#4&quot; target="”_blank”">Public
Ethics Commission</a> is also odd, and worthy of a look. I was alerted

New York City has had more problems with council earmarks than
Washington, D.C. (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/new-robert-s-bennett-report-dc-counci…; target="”_blank”">recent
blog post on D.C.</a>), and now the city's ombudsman has come up with a
different approach, an approach from outside the council, in fact, from
someone with no actual jurisdiction over the council. His plan shows that ethics

This month, in Portland, CT, home of the stone used to build New York City's
brownstones, the new ethics commission found that it was a violation of
the town's ethics code for the board of selectmen (the town's management board) to hire attorneys who had given campaign
contributions to the board of selectmen majority's party town committee,

Let me take a logical approach to the topic of government ethics proceeding
confidentiality before I look at what has been happening in Utah this last week.<br>

There's a lot of ethics news from San Diego today. First, the judge in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/important-local-campaign-finance-deci…; target="”_blank”">the
San Diego campaign finance case</a> has <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/archives/clarification%20order.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">clarified