"My e-mail boxes are full of angry letters about [former Baltimore
mayor] Dixon's retirement
package being left intact. The deal to resolve this case and get Ms.
Dixon out of office seems to have sparked more public emotion than the
mayor's transgressions." (<a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.rodricks10jan10,0,…

As I mentioned in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/family-and-conflicts-broward-county-f…
recent blog post</a>, the Broward County (FL; home of Ft. Lauderdale)
commissioners are seeking to have an ethics code (enforced by an
inspector general; it's being drafted) apply to county employees, as
well. For some reason, this not only must go to referendum, but must
also be approved by a majority each of state senators and

Every bad situation has a nightmare equivalent. The nightmare
equivalent of mayoral misuse of public office and public property for
personal benefit seems to have occurred in the Philippines.<br>
<br>

Can the government ethics enforcement community learn anything from a
successful experiment in the crime enforcement field? With tongue only
partly in cheek, I will try to show ways in which the government ethics
enforcement community could learn a thing or two.<br>
<br>

It's not an unfamiliar story. Council candidates <a href="http://www.ed4yl.com/Contract%20with%20YL.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">promise ethics
reform</a>. They are elected, and actually fulfill their promises with
a proposed ethics ordinance. But there's not really much to the
proposed ethics ordinance, and there's no enforcement mechanism.<br>
<br>

Political activity by local government employees can be a sign of misuse of office. And when election problems arise, they generally involve local
government employees, as has happened in <a href="http://www.essex-countynj.org/">Essex County</a> (NJ; home of
Newark), according to <a href="http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/essex_county_elections_chief_c…

Two months ago, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/2009-local-land-use-ethics-update-now…
pointed
out</a> Patricia Salkin's new <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1493502">summary
of
2009
reported cases</a> dealing with ethical aspects of local government land use matters.

<b>Baltimore Mayor Resigns</b><br>
Baltimore's mayor resigned on Wednesday, fortunately after being
convicted of the crime of embezzlement (albeit for $500 in gift cards)
rather than the ethics violation (not yet tried) of failing to include
gifts on her financial disclosure statement (see <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-md.plea07j…

Many complex conflicts of interest involve the spouses and other close family
members of local government officials, as can be seen in Broward County
(FL, home of Ft. Lauderdale) according to <a href="http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/10/fbi_…
article in the <i>Sun-Sentinel</i></a>.<br>
<br>

It's worth a look at Philadelphia columnist <a href="http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100106_Dave_Davies__Guts___glor…
Davies' last column</a> after twenty-five years on the job. It's
something rarely seen in the local government ethics world: a hymn of
praise to a local ethics commission, which he calls "a watchdog that
isn't afraid to bite."<br>