<b>Update: December 20, 2012</b> (see below)<br>
<br>
It looks like outsourcing may finally come to local government
ethics. No, this doesn't mean that a city's hotline will be picked
up by someone in India (in fact, hotlines in some localities are
already outsourced to corporations). What it means is that the
ongoing failure of scandal-ridden San Bernardino County (CA) to come

Here's an interesting conflict situation out of Forsyth County,
Georgia. According to <a href="http://www.forsythnews.com/section/5/article/12553/&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Forsyth <i>News</i></a>, a county commissioner owns a
company that buys county water and sells it to county residents who
used to have wells. The company owns the infrastructure that
supplies water to four subdivisions in the county. It is one of

According to <a href="http://www.kcmayor.org/http:/www.kcmayor.org/uncategorized/ethics-refor…; target="”_blank”">the
blog of Kansas City, MO's mayor</a>, Sly James, the KC Commission

<br>
<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Bju8SS6mMjgC&dq=corrupt+cities&source=…
Cities: A Practical Guide to Cure and Prevention</i></a>, a book by
Robert Klitgaard, Ronald Maclean-Abaroa, and H. Lindsey Parris
(Institute for Contemporary Studies, 2000), is an excellent study
and analysis of municipal anti-corruption efforts primarily outside

There has been a controversy (which I missed when it originally
arose a few months ago) regarding what Mitt Romney and his aides did
with their government computer hard drives when Romney left office
as governor of Massachusetts. According to <a href="http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/11/romney-purch…; target="”_blank”">an

Across the nation, there have been numerous occasions when local government
officials oppose disclosure requirements, sometimes even the most
minimal ones (for example, the name of an elected official’s
employer). Arguments are made about privacy, identity theft, and
overweening government. There is talk about rights, but never about
obligations.<br>
<br>
But the bottom-line argument is that if you require financial
disclosure, no one will volunteer for local boards and commissions.

On April 5, the county commission in Wayne County, MI (which includes Detroit) passed a new ethics
ordinance (attached; see below), following multiple scandals. It
contains many good provisions, but it does not create a government
ethics program. By this, I mean that it does not provide an
independent ethics commission, it does not provide for an ethics
officer or other independent staff member, it does not provide for ethics
training and only provides for written advice at an ethics board

<a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21552170&quot; target="”_blank”">The Schumpeter
column in this week's <i>Economist</i></a> talks about the corporate
chief legal officer (CLO), who due to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's
requirements has become a major figure at the top of every big
corporation. Much as the city or county attorney is a major figure
at the top of every local government.<br>
<br>

Here's an interesting conflict question. According to <a href="http://tewksbury.patch.com/articles/rauseo-tells-selectmen-he-may-have-…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Tewksbury <i>Patch</i></a> this week, a special town
meeting in Tewksbury, MA will soon vote on whether to go to referendum on the
question of replacing the town meeting with a council. The question

Former Maricopa County, AZ county attorney Andrew Thomas (with one
of his assistants) was disbarred on Tuesday on numerous counts
related to bringing false charges against other county officials over
a period of years, according to <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/04/10/20120…; target="”_blank”">an