Yesterday, at the annual conference of <a href="http://www.cogel.org/">the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL)</a>, the only association of state and local government ethics professionals, Judge Anthony Wilhoit was given the COGEL Award, which is
given annually to someone who has "made a significant, demonstrable,
and positive contribution to the fields of campaign finance,
elections, ethics, freedom of information or lobbying for a

Between the American Thanksgiving holiday and throwing out my back so that I
couldn't sit at my computer, I missed one of the most fascinating
stories of the year:  a <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/read-the-court-ruling-remov…; target="”_blank”">judicial
dismissal of Toronto's mayor for a conflict of interest violation</a>.

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/chicago-task-force-second-report-v-%E…; target="”_blank”">In

Ethics program independence is, as far as I'm concerned, the single
most important issue in ethics reform. Nothing gains the public's
trust as much as an ethics program that is independent from the
officials over whom it has jurisdiction.<br>
<br>
It is clear from the second report of the Chicago Ethics Reform Task
Force (attached; see below) that the task force members cared about
making the Chicago's ethics program more independent. But the task

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/chicago-task-force-second-report-v-%E…; target="”_blank”">My

second blog post on the Chicago ethics task force's second report
identified what I considered to be its worst ideas</a>. Mayor
Emanuel's recommendations accepted its bad ideas just as much as
its good ideas.<br>
<br>

<a href="http://chicago.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=2213945&GUID=58366FD1-5D37…; target="”_blank”">The
second round of Chicago ethics reform recommendations</a>, based
on the ethics task force's second report (attached; see below), have

It's a nice coincidence that, just when I was preparing to write a
blog post about a trendy thing in the corporate world called
"open-book management," the former comptroller of Dixon, IL, Rita
Crundwell, pleaded guilty to a federal fraud charge that she
siphoned more than $53 million from the town of only 16,000 people

After <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-aisen…; target="”_blank”">Common
Cause questioned the fitness of Baltimore's government ethics

News from British Columbia provides strong evidence of how difficult
it is for anyone to deal with his own conflict situation, even a government
ethics professional. No one should think that it is easy for someone
to see an appearance of impropriety relating to himself or to respond to a conflict allegation against him in anything but a personal manner. A
government ethics program must facilitate the process of dealing responsibly with a conflict situation by allowing, or even
requiring, officials to seek neutral, professional advice. And a

A situation that arose recently in Atlanta shows how important
it is to require applicant disclosure of relationships with local
government officials, and to hold applicants accountable. According to <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/atlanta-city-councilman-lamar-willis…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Atlanta <i>Journal-Constitution</i></a>, Atlanta's ethics