I have done a poor job in this blog covering administrative ethics,
that is, the field of study involving the professional conduct of
public administrators. Writers on administrative ethics have done a
poor job of covering government ethics, that is, the field of study
involving conflicts of interest. Although the two fields overlap,
they exist in mostly separate worlds.  For example,
rarely does an administrative ethics professor show up at a Council
on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) conference, and my work (among

[Note: I have made changes throughout this blog post, based on a February 25 e-mail message from the COG executive director]<br>
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It should feel good when a pet idea of yours becomes a reality.
My pet idea is the regional ethics program, whose biggest
successes have been of the countywide variety, such as Miami-Dade
County and Palm Beach County, FL (there is also a Broward County
program, but it is run by an inspector general). There are a few
regional ethics commissions in Kentucky, and one in

Some very interesting issues arise out of a past (and present)
conflict situation that has become an issue in this week's mayoral
primary in the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas
City, KS ("UG").<br>
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The conflict situation appears simple at first glance, but it is not. In 2007, a UG commissioner
became the paid executive director of the <a href="http://andakck.org/&quot; target="”_blank”">Argentine Neighborhood Development

Does a former ethics commission member have a special obligation not to
make misstatements with respect to government ethics matters? This question arose
from a 2010 case in Florida I just came across, where the state
senate president hired a former chair of the state ethics commission
as his attorney. According to <a href="http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/state/ethics-panel-approves-haridopolos-se…; target="”_blank”">an

According to <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/a-revolving-door-in-washington-t…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's New York <i>Times</i></a>, U.S. Senate majority leader
Harry Reid's spokesman said with respect to questions regarding his
hiring of a tax adviser away from General Electric, "The impulse in
some quarters to reflexively cast suspicion on private sector

<br><b>Self-Evaluation and Getting One's Bearings</b><br>
To change oneself (and to support change in one's environment),
self-evaluation is required. Before you change, you have to have
your bearings. The problem is that, unlike evaluation of others,
self-evaluation is rarely rational. It is more commonly emotional,
taking "the rosiest possible interpretation of the facts," according

<b>You Can't Teach Ethics</b><br>
In their book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/&quot; target="”_blank”">Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard</a></i> (Crown, 2010), Chip
and Dan Heath say that there are two kinds of mindset:  the fixed
mindset and the growth mindset. Those with a fixed mindset believe that

<b>Simplifying Self-Supervision</b><br>
In their book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/&quot; target="”_blank”">Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard</a></i> (Crown, 2010), Chip
and Dan Heath note that self-control or, more accurately,
self-supervision is an exhaustible resource. What looks like

<b>Why Scandals Lead to Poor Ethics Reform</b><br>
In their book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/&quot; target="”_blank”">Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard</a></i> (Crown, 2010), Chip
and Dan Heath note that John Kotter and Dan Cohen argue in their

<b>A Destination for Government Ethics Training</b><br>
Most cities and counties treat ethics training as a one-off
phenomenon. Toss a hundred people in a room, give them a lecture
about how to be good, and that's it for at least a year or two. One