It took a long time for Egil "Bud" Krogh to write his book on
Watergate, but it finally came out a few months ago.<br>
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Krogh is not one of the better known Watergaters, partly because he
pleaded guilty to his crimes. But as the head of the Plumbers, in
charge of investigating leaks to the press, he oversaw the break-in of
the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. For years he has been

One of the most frustrating problems many cities and counties face is
all that untaxable land owned by nonprofit organizations. Some states,
such as my state, Connecticut, pay local governments part of what they
lose out in property taxes, but when things are hard, as now, and the
taxes are most sorely needed, there's less in the kitty to hand out.<br>
<br>

<a href="http://www.modbee.com/local/story/308760.html&quot; target="”_blank”">An article in
today's Modesto Bee</a> provides an excellent example of problems that
arise when a city's redevelopment is accomplished by people who can
benefit directly from it.<br>
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The five-person Riverbank, California Council has three members who own

According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/washington/23justice.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> in today's New York <span>Times</span>,
a spokesperson for Christopher Christie, the U.S. Attorney for New
Jersey, spoke in defense of an agreement made with Bristol-Myers Squibb to avoid
its prosecution, which agreement called for the company to endow a

When should governments provide counsel for officials who have had an
ethics complaint brought against them? This has become a big issue
recently in my state, Connecticut.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/442">Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.</a>
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<br>
In March, a lawyer for the Office of State Ethics proposed a legal
opinion that would not allow lawmakers to use staff attorneys in ethics

This Sunday New York <span>Times</span>' <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/18apology.html">front-page
feature</a> on how doctors are recognizing the value (ethical and financial)
of apologizing provides a good opportunity to bring up again what I
consider to be one of the most important topics in local government
ethics.<br>
<br>

Actuary Jonathan Schwartz has received no funds from City Ethics. But
it may seem like that from how perfectly today's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/nyregion/16actuary.html&quot; target="”_blank”">front-page
New York Times article</a> follows up on the blog entry I posted
yesterday.<br>
<br>
In yesterday's blog entry, I argued that governments and public sector

The city of Vallejo, California (pop. 117,000) is about to file for
bankruptcy, primarily, it appears, to allow it to void union contracts
and have a bankruptcy judge rather than negotiations work out a new
contract. Sajan George, an adviser to struggling public entities, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/11/BA6E10JVID…; target="”_blank”">has

A quote from a lawyer in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/us/14detroit.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an article</a>
in today's New York <span>Times</span>
brought me back to what I recently promised to discuss at the end of <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/433&quot; target="”_blank”">a blog entry</a> about

How a big-city police chief responds to his commission of an ethics violation is more
important than the violation itself. The worst thing he can do is act as if he is above the law, as if ethics laws, not to mention ethics
considerations, do not apply to him.<br>
<br>
Sadly, Miami's police chief, John Timoney, has done the wrong thing almost
every time he had the opportunity.<br>
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