One thing I've failed to do in this blog is sufficiently emphasize that
making
ethical decisions in government is not primarily about being a good,
ethical person, as most people seem to think. Essentially, it is the
same as making other
decisions. As <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/character-and-government-ethics&quot; target="_blank">I 
recently wrote</a>, "with effective training, in an

Many of the most difficult situations in government ethics involve
relationships that are not direct. For example, situations where the
company that provides a benefit does not do business with the local
government, but is owned by someone who owns another company that does
do business with or have an interest in legislation before the local
government (click <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/two-case-studies&quot; target="_blank">here </a>for

This week saw the opening of the trial of former New York state senate
majority leader Joseph Bruno for honest services fraud. According to
the assistant U.S. attorney presenting the
case, as <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=860586&quot; target="”_blank”">quoted
in the Albany <i>Times-Union</i></a>, although a
criminal trial, "this case is about conflicts of

It's Election Day 2009, so what better topic than a particularly slimy
instance of negative campaigning that attacks a candidate for seeking
an advisory opinion from the local ethics board, and actually following
it.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/68388382.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> on kcrg.com this Sunday, a candidate's flier said that his

While on the subject of pension boards in California, it's worth
mentioning a new California bill, <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_1551-1600/ab_1584_bill_…; target="”_blank”">Bill
1584</a>, signed into law on October 18. It is an amendment to the
County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (Section 22212.5 of the
Education Code, Sections 20098 and 31528 of the Government Code, with

It's been over three years since <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/124&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote</a> about the
conflict situation of San Diego's pension board. Its members were
selected by the city government labor unions and by the city, and they
worked for the city. When an increase in their retirement benefits was
explicitly tied to their approval of a reduction in contributions to

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/council-fiefdoms-and-unethical-behavi…; target="”_blank”">Dallas
council members' control</a> over development in their districts led
earlier this month to the<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/extortion-convictions-dallas-fascinat…; target="”_blank”">

According to <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-ignores-ethics-rule-171424.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> in this week's Atlanta <i>Journal-Constitution</i>, a rule
prohibiting Georgia state employees from accepting gifts over $25 is
not being enforced. At all.<br>
<br>
How does the paper know these gifts are being made? Because lobbyists

<br>
<b>Update:</b> November 11, 2009 (see below)<br>
<br>
Is there any worse way to skirt government ethics rules and misuse
public money and position than via a charitable organization? And yet
it
happens again and again. This time it happened in Baltimore, according

This week, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox <a href="http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164-34739-225122--,00.html&quot; target="”_blank”">announced</a>
a "toolbox" for local governments to create local ethics policies.
Local government ethics is already governed by state statutes, but
local governments can apparently supplement these rules with local laws and ethics