<b>“Unless
you out-and-out stick it in your pocket and walk away, everything’s
legal.”</b><br>
--Spokesman for the New York State Board of Elections<br>
<br>

<b>Update</b>: October 21, 2009 (see below)<br>
Two interesting issues come out of a long, detailed <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/772/story/1513951.html">Kansas City
<i>Star</i>
article</a> yesterday about Missouri political consultant, and recent
house speaker,
Ron Jetton.<br>
<br>

One problem in government ethics is that when conflict situations are
dealt with responsibly, there is rarely a record of them. They pass
quietly, failing to end up in the newspaper, at an ethics commission,
or in court. So generally we're stuck learning from the times when
conflict situations are dealt with irresponsibly. One of these situations, in Wausau, Wisconsin, made it to court, and a decision this
week by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin

<b>Online Training List Updated May 24, 2013</b><br>
<br>
More and more government ethics information and training materials are
available online, so that they can be easily accessed at any time.
Everything from FAQs to information sheets to plain-English guides to
quizzes to videos.<br>
<br>
These materials are not only useful to the local government employees
and officials they are intended for. They are also useful to those in
other local governments who have to draft such materials and create

In your county, a major corruption investigation is being conducted by
the FBI. Already, nearly twenty county employees, city building
inspectors, and businessmen have pleaded guilty (see an earlier <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/763"><b>blog post</b></a> on the
investigation). Others are holding out. What do you do?<br>
<br>
The usual answer is to create an effective ethics program. In Cuyahoga

<br>
<b>Update</b>: February 2, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
A recent New York <i>Times</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/nyregion/13conflict.html"&gt;
article</a> concerns a potential conflict in the city council speaker's
office. But what is most interesting about the article is the bigger
question it raises

Once again, a local government official's attempt to use a charity to
get around campaign finance laws has blown up in his face. According to
<a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/fulton-county-court-…
article</b></a> in the Atlanta <i>Journal-Constitution</i>, an Atlanta council
member was fined $25,000 by a state court for failing to register a

<b>Update</b>: October 16, 2009 (see below)<br>
In his New York Times legal affairs <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/us/13bar.html?_r=2&ref=politics&quot; target="”_blank”">column</b>
</a>today, Adam Liptak focused on what is known as "honest services
fraud," which is actually part of a definition of "scheme or artifice to

Here's an ugly little case study, based on an ethics complaint filed in
September in Hillborough County, the county which includes Tampa.
According to the complaint (attached; see below), the county
administrator wanted to give herself and the county attorney a 1%
salary increase. Salary increases in the county must be approved by the
Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). The county administrator asked
the county attorney if the raises would be legal without such approval,

<br>
<b>"I'm
following my own path." </b><br>
<br>
--Jean Sarkozy, 23-year-old son of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The young Sarkozy, who is studying law (he does not have a college
degree yet) </span><span class="opDefaultContent" id="opmodule_placeholder">is the main candidate for chair of EPAD, a
quasi-governmental agency that manages the La Defense financial
district on the western outskirts of Paris. His father held the same