Local government ethics can quickly become an ugly circus when officials don't really understand it. A good example occurred in
Royal Oak, Michigan last week, when a city commissioner who had
recently pointed out a legitimate conflict situation involving a fellow commissioner
took an "ethics pledge" at a commission meeting, without any warning, and then asked that
the commissioners agree to take the pledge at the beginning of every

Many ethics codes expressly state that government officials and
employees may not allow the use of city stationery for any purpose
other than city business. The principal goal of this rule is
to prevent officials from using city stationery for personal
purposes, such as campaigns, business transactions, and charitable
solicitations. The rule is part of the more general prohibition of the misuse
of city resources and of the city's power and reputation as the manager
of the community.<br>
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According to <a href="http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/backpedal-replaces-…; target="”_blank”">Dan
Lett's column in the Winnipeg <i>Free Press</i></a> yesterday, when a
conflict of interest issue arises with respect to Winnipeg's mayor,
his first response is to shrug his shoulders. If that works, that's
the end of the matter.<br>
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One of the wonderful things about local government ethics is that
every mayor or county executive feels qualified to act as if he was
establishing the first local government ethics program ever. It's
sort of like choosing what will go in a bento box, except that there
are no rules (e.g., only one sushi roll, or you've got to have miso or the clear
soup).<br>
<br>
A new bento box is being put together in the infamous Prince

<br>This second of two posts on Michael Sandel's new book, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=06-54FCTQ9AC&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>What Money
Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets</i></a> (Farrar Straus, 2012),
includes a few fascinating takes on different aspects of government ethics, including
preferential treatment, municipal marketing, skyboxes, and the sensitive topic of inappropriate
incentives.<br>

Now that I am no longer administrator of the New Haven Democracy
Fund, a public campaign financing program, I can once again write
about ethics issues that arise in New Haven. An interesting issue
arose when, according to <a href="http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/09/10/news/new_haven/doc504e9eb75e7…; target="”_blank”">an article in Monday's New Haven <i>Register</i></a>, a member of the city's

According to <a href="http://phoenix.gov/news/091012ethicsreviewtf.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
official press release</a>, yesterday the mayor of Phoenix
announced the formation of an Ethics Review Ad Hoc Task Force, with
eleven members appointed by the mayor, to be chaired by former
Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley and staffed by the city’s law
and human resources departments.<br>
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Harvard professor Michael Sandel's new book <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=06-54FCTQ9AC&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>What Money
Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets</i></a> (Farrar Straus, 2012) has a
lot to say about the effect of commercial, market values on American
culture, including on American government. Sandel's book focuses on
"the expansion of markets, and of market values, into spheres of

Last week, I wrote blog posts about how Chicago's ethics program
needs <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/chicago-task-force-second-report-iii-…; target="”_blank”">more

The worst recommendation in the Chicago ethics task force's second report (attached; see below) involves the role it wants the corporation counsel to
play in the city's ethics program: prosecuting attorney.<br>
<br>
I feel strongly that a corporation counsel's office should play no