<h2>"It's a very powerful story of a public official who wanted to do
the right thing, who got appropriate advice, and then ended up being
punished. He was punished for doing his public duty and voting, just
because a political ally was involved. I don't
call that a conflict of interest. I call that democracy."</h2> —Joshua
Rosenkranz, a New York lawyer representing Sparks City (NV) council
member Mike Carrigan in his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of a suit attempting to overturn a

This is a very serious blog post, but I want to start it with a game.
Here are the headlines of stories that are said to be "related" to <a href="http://www.wltx.com/news/article/125997/2/UPDATE-Politicians-Pay-Fines-…; target="”_blank”">an
article on the WLTX website yesterday</a> relating to local government
ethics in South Carolina:<br>
<br>
<ul class="">

In <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/stamford-antagonists-reach-settlement…; target="”_blank”">the
last
installment</a> of the ongoing Stamford (CT) ethics battle, the
major antagonist had reached a settlement with the ethics board, and
the principal cases, both ethics proceedings and a federal suit against
the ethics board and the ethics complainants, were withdrawn. But this

<b>A Clever Use of Government Employees for Political Purposes</b><br>
According to <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/01/2092632/role-of-transit-workers-i…; target="”_blank”">an
article
in the Miami <i>Herald</i></a>, it appears that the mayor of
Miami-Dade County, currently facing a recall election, is playing a
clever little game that involves the use of government employees for

Despite the many differences between corporate and government ethics,
sometimes the corporate ethics world has a lot to teach the government
ethics world, especially considering that corporate ethics has a zillion times
the personnel and budget to work with.<br>
<br>
One example of this appears in <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/talking_about_ethics_how_we.html&quot; target="”_blank”">a
<i>Harvard

On February 10, 2008, Bobby Jindal, the newly elected governor of
Louisiana, said in <a href="http://www.gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&catID=3&a…; target="”_blank”">a
big speech</a>:<ul>

Cook County assessor Joseph Berrios is becoming a regular character in
this blog (see below for prior posts on him). This time he is declaring
unconstitutional a law passed by the county to limit his fundraising
from lawyers who appeal property tax assessments. And he has the

I had a conversation with a developer the other day, which got me
thinking in what I think are interesting ways about unwritten land use rules.<br>
<br>

I don't usually turn over an entire blog post to someone else, although I would like very much to do it. <a href="http://www.timesleader.com/golackawanna/people/Kavulich_legislation_on_…; target="”_blank”">This
letter

<b>Let's Not Drink to It</b><br>
Yes, it has happened. Local government ethics has been compared to
Prohibition.<br>
<br>