It's been a year since I last wrote about placement agents, so it's
time for an update, based on <a href="http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0523/features-pensions-glen-sergeon-a…; target="”_blank”">an
article put up yesterday on the <i>Forbes Magazine</i> site</a>, designated
for the May 23 issue.<br>
<br>
Placement agents are intermediaries between pension boards and

Needless to say, <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/10-568…; target="”_blank”">last
week's
oral
argument before the U.S. Supreme Court</a> in the <i>Carrigan v.

<b>Update</b>: September 17, 2011 (see below)<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/default/article/An-ethical-dilemma-Who-…; target="”_blank”">An
article
in yesterday's Stamford <i>Advocate</i></a> keeps asking the question,
Who should pay? The article is referring to attorney's fees

There are two morals to the following story. One involves law, the
other ethics.<br>
<br>
Last August, <a href="http://www.npri.org/publications/nevada-schools-billiondollar-blind-spo…; target="”_blank”">the
Nevada Policy Research Institute ran a long commentary</a> on the fact
that Nevada's 17 school superintendents were not filing financial
disclosure statements with the state ethics commission, something

Kerry Cavanaugh, a Los Angeles <I>Daily News</i> columnist, got it wrong when
she started <a href="http://www.dailynews.com/columnists/ci_17787108&quot; target="”_blank”">a
recent
column,</a> "Here's another reminder that politicians are not
like you or me. If I get caught taking inappropriate gifts or violating
the company's ethics policy, I might be fired, suspended without pay or

I was just reading <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/18483257?story_id=18483257&quot; target="”_blank”">a
review in <i>The Economist</i></a> of Francis Fukayama's new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374227349&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>The Origins

In <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/opinion/l21elect.html?_r=1&ref=opinio…; target="”_blank”">a
letter
to the editor in yesterday's New York <i>Times</i></a>, two lawyers who
represent clients seeking to gut Arizona's Citizens Clean Elections
public campaign financing program end by calling Arizona's program "a
vision of unconstitutional
dystopia, not free speech."<br>

Here's a situation from Lafayette Parish, a city of 220,000 in
south-central Louisiana, which shows how when one official fails to
deal responsibly with his conflicts, he is likely to be complicit in helping other
officials deal irresponsibly with their conflicts and with those of their colleagues. When this official is a
government attorney, it can cause an entire board or agency to deal irresponsibly
with a conflict.<br>
<br>

I've written many blog posts about various cases where the legislative
immunity defense has been made, but I haven't pulled together in one
post the
three alternative, preventative approaches local governments can take
to deal with the issue of legislative
immunity before anyone raises it as a defense. It is far better, and
far less expensive, to prevent local
legislators from raising the defense of legislative immunity than it is
to litigate this complex issue. It is also damaging to the public trust

<b>Wow! Get a Load of Those Salaries!</b><br>
It's official. People get more upset over big salaries to government
officials than over bribes, kickbacks, unbid contracts, and the like,
which cost taxpayers far, far more.<br>
<br>