On April 30, the D.C. ethics board reached a settlement with a
council member (attached; see below), whereby he was admonished for
having "used the prestige of his office or his public position for
the private gain" of a company by influencing health department
personnel to leave the site of the business without issuing a notice
of closure, allowing the business to continue to operate for several
more hours.<br>
<br>
Some important issues are raised in this matter, including (1) the

In January, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/ethics-reform-testimony-dc-and-tallah…; target="”_blank”">a
blog post</a> about the District of Columbia ethics board's first
public forum seeking recommendations for ethics reform. On April 17,
the ethics board published a report that makes recommendations for
improvements to the city's ethics program (attached; see below).<br>
<br>

<h4>“The real issue is who’s giving money and real transparency. We’re
going to do this in a way that’s above board. We’re each going to be
contributing our ethical and moral standards that we have been
living our lives by.”</h4><br>

<br>
It's here at last:  the first government ethics app (at least
that I know of). According to <a href="http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/04/smartphone-app-lets-…; target="”_blank”">a
Capitol Alert post on the Sacramento <i>Bee</i> website yesterday</a>, 

According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/nyregion/business-integrity-commissio…; target="”_blank”">a
column in today's New York <i>Times</i></a> and a visit to the <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/bic/html/home/home.shtml&quot; target="”_blank”">New York

Phoenix has followed Chicago in taking a task force approach to
ethics reform. As in Chicago, the mayor selected the task force. The
Ethics Task Force, which according to <a>an

This week, San Antonio's mayor and city attorney proposed a number of reforms to the
city's ethics code and campaign finance regulations. I will deal
here only with the ethics reforms. A summary of the proposed reforms
and a red-lined copy of the ethics code are attached (see below).<br>
<br>

Many major cities do not prohibit gifts from those seeking special benefits from the city government (restricted sources) to
family members of city officials. Such a prohibition may seem a stretch,
at least theoretically. How can a government interfere in the gifts given to an official's family members? Consider this situation, from 2011, which recently became
public.<br>
<br>

<h4>“You work for the banks, they pay you, and yet you’re supposed to
represent the public interest. ... Consultants have a financial
incentive to do things to attract repeat business.”</h4><br>

<b>Applicant Disclosure Is Good for Officials</b><br>
If Ontario or Mississauga required broad applicant disclosure,
Mississauga's mayor would not be in court this week arguing that she
didn't know that her son had invested in a huge hotel and convention