<span>Open Records Requests and
Ethics Proceedings</span><br>
In an unusual twist on the confidentiality of ethics proceedings,
counsel for the Colorado Springs mayor's former client, the person who gave rise to the mayor's apparent conflict of interest, has made an open records
request for all documents related to the ethics proceeding against the

A few local government ethics issues come together in the story
behind the arrest today of 44 people in a political corruption and
international money laundering ring based in New Jersey. The story is
best told, so far, in the<a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nj/press/press/files/pdffiles/bidrig0723%20re…; target="”_blank”">
press release</a> of the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.<br>
<br>

<b>Update:</b> June 29, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
I thought I would never write about anything concerning Gov. Sarah
Palin again, but the report on an ethics complaint against her, regarding the fund created to pay the legal expenses from
her defense against prior ethics complaints, is too interesting and valuable to ignore.<br>
<br>
The report (attached;
see below) deals with two provisions that appear in most local
government ethics codes:  misuse of office and gifts. The report's

<big>"Even the baby Jesus accepted gifts, and I don't think it corrupted
him." and "The taking of gifts does not corrupt a person. It's when
you're taking those gifts for personal gain that they corrupt you."</big><br>
<br>

While so many local governments don't take conflicts seriously enough
to require recusal, some take conflicts too seriously, and overreact.
This appears to be what happened in Elizabethtown (NY), according to <a href="http://www.pressrepublican.com/homepage/local_story_201114804.html?keyw…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's <i>Press-Republican</i></a>.<br>
<br>

Nepotism is
often left out of ethics codes because it does not seem all that unethical. Another reason for leaving nepotism out is that it is
so common, especially in the uniformed departments, that local
government officials are afraid to touch it. When nepotism rules do
appear, they often provide for grandfathering in current
nepotism, and for waivers, even if waivers are not available for other
ethics code violations.<br>
<br>

No one does unethics like Chicago. It's been four months since I've
written about the city, so it's long overdue.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1670645,CST-NWS-oconnor17.article…; target="”_blank”">a
recent article in the Chicago <span>Sun-Times</span></a><span>, </span>Alderman Patrick O'Connor is the

One problem local governments have in drafting ethics codes is that
they want it to be too many things, to serve too many purposes. They
want it to be an aspirational code of conduct, making local government
more civil and government officials more honest and fair. They want it
to make officials follow all relevant laws and constitutional
provisions. And they want it to deal with conflicts of interest, that
is, with the situations where personal interests may be placed above
the public interest.<br>
<br>

In <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/806&quot; target="”_blank”">a blog post</a>
yesterday, I noted that North Carolina was soon to require local
governments to pass ethics codes. I've now found out more about the
proposed law, and it is disappointing, to say the least.<br>
<br>

What just happened in San Diego, according to <a href="http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jul/15/1m15ethics00931-mayo…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's<span> Union-Tribune</a>,</span>
is a lesson for local government ethics commission members,
especially commission chairs, and even more especially chairs who speak