<b>Ethics Reform as Part of a Financial Assistance Deal</b><br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/applying-pay-play-ordinance-trenton&q…; target="”_blank”">Earlier
this week I wrote</a> about the application of Trenton's pay-to-play

There are people who get great satisfaction going after the ethics of
government ethics professionals. Rarely are their accusations relevant
to government ethics; it's just about showing that we're not good
people, either, as if government ethics was just about good and bad.
Maybe we should wear t-shirts that say, on the front, "We're Not
Perfect," and on the back, "So?"<br>
<br>

Yes, boys and girls, it's time for another episode of every government
ethics lover's favorite tale, Vernon and the Dragons. In the last
episode, back in November, the dragon known as Los Angeles County was
considering a proposal to require the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon,_California&quot; target="”_blank”">city of Vernon</a> to competitively bid housing
for the city, which houses very few people, and mostly friends of government

Local governments cannot afford to do the level of due
diligence that corporate compliance offices do on a regular basis. But
it is worth looking at how corporate compliance offices and corporate
executives deal with other entities that are found to be

<b>Update:</b> February 10, 2011 (see below)<br>
<br>
Trenton's city attorney and mayor have been going through an elaborate
dance in the last week, since the city attorney decided to void a
contract between the city and a law firm that made a large contribution

Usually, in government
ethics situations, local officials can get away with doing nothing,
especially when the conflict isn't theirs. Few ethics codes have
provisions prohibiting complicity in and requiring the reporting of
others' ethics violations (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/full-text-model-ethics-code#0.1_TOC49…; target="”_blank”">the
City

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/getting-green-bay-ethics-program-supe…; target="”_blank”">Last
month, I wrote</a> about how the Green Bay ethics board hadn't met much
more than the Packers had won Super Bowls. Well, now that the Packers
have won another, it's time for the ethics board to meet again (the
last time it met was in 1999).<br>
<br>

According to <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/news/114992909_Clifton_ruling_due_on_ethics_…; target="”_blank”">an
article in <i>The Record</i> this week</a>, a Clifton, New Jersey council
member is being accused of dealing irresponsibly with a conflict by
participating in a discussion about, although not voting on, the
reappointment of two members of the city's zoning board. The conflict

The U.S. is not the only country with a revolving-door problem. In
Japan, the problem is deeply institutionalized. It is as much a part of
the retirement system as pensions.<br>
<br>
But the Japanese name for the revolving door shows that not only does
the system work in a different
manner than ours, but that the Japanese have a different opinion of the
relative value of government and business. The name is <i>amakudari</i>, which means "descent

Last month, I did <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/mack-truck-exceptions-new-gift-provis…; target="”_blank”">a
blog
post</a> on the huge exceptions to <a href="http://www.flashpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/SB14-int.pdf&q…; target="”_blank”">Alabama's
new