A conflict situation in Albuquerque presents an excellent
opportunity to consider just what it is about conflicts that makes
them problematic. According to <a href="http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/11/10/news/conflict-alleged-on-poli…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Albuquerque <i>Journal</i> on Saturday</a>, the chair of
Albuquerque's Police Oversight Commission also directs the auxiliary

It's been a few years since <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/679&quot; target="”_blank”">I wrote about the
problems with the partisan, or "bipartisan," administration of local elections</a>.
One thing that arisen from this year's election is a strong feeling
that it is high time that New York City's Board of Elections be reformed.
Hopefully, this process will get a great deal of publicity, and

<br>The headline of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/us/politics/voters-oust-lawmakers-acc…; target="”_blank”">a
New York <i>Times</i> article today</a> is, "Ethics
in Play, Voters Oust Incumbents Under Inquiry." One's first
impression upon reading the article is that people are throwing
unethical politicians out of office. The system is working. But upon

With the frequent confusion of person and office, sometimes it's not
that easy to tell the difference between a gift to a local
government agency and a gift to its director. This confusion can
open an agency director to accusations of ethical misconduct.<br>
<br>

Several years ago, one of my town's department heads was arrested
for embezzlement of funds. When someone had reported to the first
selectman (effectively the mayor) that this was going on, the first
selectman went to the department head and asked him if the report
was true. The department head denied it. And the matter was dropped.<br>
<br>
Did the first selectman have an obligation to the public not to
accept his department head's word, but instead dig deeper to find out the

A presidential election day is a good time to consider how vague,
character-based ethics rules can be misused.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/international/21565144-pitfalls-aspiring-…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the October 27 <i>Economist</i></a>, the Iranian constitution,
for example, requires a presidential candidate to have the

Independent agencies, especially those with lots of money to spend
and contracts to enter into, require not just ethics policies, but a
comprehensive, independent ethics program. This rarely acknowledged
fact has been made clear once again by an external audit of an
agency that proved completely unable to self-regulate its officials'

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/20/us/politics/anita-dunn-both-insider-a…; target="”_blank”">A
front-page article in today's New York <i>Times</i></a> looks on a
conflict situation that is usually ignored:  the unpaid adviser
who effectively sells her inside, often confidential information to
her clients. She is not technically a lobbyist, because her

Intimidation is, I believe, the worst kind of ethical misconduct in
government, because (1) it limits or changes participation of
people in the democratic
process, (2) it is emotionally damaging, and (3) it enables all
sorts of ethical misconduct. Intimidation is a fundamental form of
misuse of power and position. (For more about

It is important to bring contractors into an ethics program,
requiring them to disclose gifts their employees make to officials, and to deal responsibly with
possible conflicts they are aware of. Businesses tend to deal with
such things internally. Bringing them into an ethics program requires them to
recognize that dealing with conflict situations internally is not
enough.<br>
<br>
The fact is that most ethics programs do not place sufficient
requirements on contractors. Often, ethics programs have no