The New Orleans Ethics Review Board, formed in 2006, certainly wins an
A for independence. According to the <a href="http://nolaethics.com/uploads/File/Legislation/City%20Code%20of%20Ethic…; target="”_blank”">city
ethics code</a>, six of its seven members are chosen by the mayor (with
council approval) from nominees submitted by the heads of five local
private universities (the seventh is the mayor's to select).

Some news in Greensboro, NC led me to a blog post on old news in
Greenburgh, NY, so here's the new news and the old news about two
cities with nearly the same name.<br>
<br>
In Greensboro, NC, a council candidate has thrown down <a href="http://www.electnancyvaughan.com/ethics.html&quot; target="”_blank”">a challenge</a> to
fill out and post online the state financial disclosure form. It's not

Government ethics policies sometimes clash. The most common clash
involving ethics commissions is with transparency laws.<br>
<br>
Like any government body, ethics commissions would prefer not to
discuss
many sorts of matters in public, both to protect the parties involved
and
because it is uncomfortable to discuss many ethics matters in public.
Because counsel is present during most such discussions, ECs (and their
lawyers) often feel that such discussions are privileged. There are

"I must say regretfully that ... what I have heard is a statement I can
only describe as arrogant, unrepentant, and a smear on this
institution.  Everybody does not do it.  Members of this body
attempt, by word and deed, publicly and privately, to take great care
with their personal conduct as it might be perceived by the American
people.  That is equally true for Democrats and Republicans,
liberals and conservatives.  I have found that to be the only
unifying thread in this body.  For the senator from California to

According to <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20090827/NEWS06/90827036/1008/Cox-backing-…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Detroit <i>Free Press</i></a>, Michigan's Attorney General is
seeking stronger financial and gift disclosure requirements for state
officials, and he wants these requirements to apply to local officials,

Two former public works employees are in the news this week for
misconduct.<br>
<br>

Last's week's <a href="http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14259091&…; target="”_blank”">Economist</a>
provides a look at a new form of local government ethics enforcement in
China, which exists because local governments have failed to institute
ethics programs. That form of enforcement is murder, and it appears to
be increasingly accepted by the courts.<br>
<br>

If you want to encourage unethical behavior, give individual officials
independent power over the sorts of decisions where people have the
greatest incentive to tempt officials, and officials are in the best position to enforce pay-to-play.<br>
<br>

Here's an interesting potential conflict. Chicago's <a href="http://civicfed.org/&quot; target="”_blank”">Civic Federation</a>, a "non-partisan
government research organization working to maximize the
quality and cost-effectiveness of government services in the Chicago
region and State of Illinois," is asked by the city council to evaluate the
city's 2016 Olympics bid, to make sure that Mayor Daley's Olympic

This morning the Jacksonville City Council finance committee continued their deliberations on each line item of the city's budget. This morning's agenda begins with the Office of General Counsel, which includes the budget for the City's Ethics Officer.

Council members Yarborough & Joost comment that they want to ensure that the office does NOT report to the General Counsel. Mullaney states "Separated out the LEGAL function of Ethics - into a "Legal Counsel" and kept the non-legal aspects of the ethics office separate from the legal.