My <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/using-confidentiality-smokescreen&quot; target="”_blank”">most
recent blog post</a> involved ethics commission confidentiality.
This one involves the other side of the coin:  ethics
commission transparency.<br>
<br>
I often send blog posts to officials I write about, hoping that they
will enter into dialogue about the issue, privately or online, or at

It's Attack the Ethics Commission week once again, this time in New
York State. According to <a href="http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/126018/binghamton-mayor-won…; target="”_blank”">an
April 16 article in the Albany <i>Times-Union</i></a>, a mayor from one
party filed a complaint against the deputy majority leader of the

I want to revisit a situation I mentioned a few days ago in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/how-not-accomplish-ethics-reform&quot; target="”_blank”">a
post about ethics reform</a>. Common Cause Rhode Island was
recommending a reform to deal with the situation where gifts are
made to officials by an organization that is not an "interested
party" (and therefore not subject to the gift ban) because it does

Last September, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/dc-legislative-immunity-case-alleging…; target="”_blank”">a
blog post</a> about the attempt by District of Columbia council
members to block a subpoena by employing a legislative immunity
defense. The case involves retaliation against a whistleblower who
had alleged improper council input in the awarding of a lottery
contract.<br>

Here's an interesting political activity situation out of La Crosse County,
Wisconsin. According to <a href="http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/o-malley-asks-f…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the La Crosse <i>Tribune</i> last week</a>, the county
administrator was involved in supporting a referendum to give the

Over the weekend, I read a <a href="http://works.bepress.com/rebecca_roiphe/1/&quot; target="”_blank”">March 2010 draft</a>
of Rebecca Roiphe's law review article "The Ethics of Willful
Ignorance," which appeared in the <a href="https://articleworks.cadmus.com/geolaw/zs000111.html&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>Georgetown

Imagine that you're a county supervisor with a $92,000 salary and,
despite the salary, you're allowed to hold an outside job (because
the county supervisors before you gave you, and themselves, this opportunity). With a
sizeable salary, there would appear to be no reason to work in any
field that would create an appearance of impropriety.<br>
<br>

Here are three instances of ethics reform that, I hope,
would not happen if someone involved had read the chapter on ethics reform in my
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/ethics%20book&quot; target="”_blank”">Local Government Ethics Program book</a>.<br>
<br>

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/user/register&quot; title="New User Registration">
<img src="/files/RegisterHere.jpg" alt="PDF Format"></a>

<br><br>The book I've been working on for what seems like ages is finally
available! With the exciting title <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/ethics%20book&quot; target="”_blank”"><b>Local Government Ethics Programs</b></a>,
this is the first comprehensive resource book on the subject. The
subtitle subtly hints at the audience for this book:  <b>A
Resource for Ethics Commission Members, Ethics Reformers,