One of the most effective ways to create a good ethics environment is
by telling the full story of the bad ethics environment that preceded
it. If someone or, better, a number of people, have the courage and
integrity to not only admit publicly to what they and their colleagues did, but to tell it like a story, a group story, it will have a cathartic effect.
It will cleanse the community and act as a point where everything is
in the open and continues to be in the open. It will make it easier for

You can
learn something from every local government ethics code there is, and especially from codes that have only been proposed. Today I'm going to look at a
proposed ethics code for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Ellyn,_Illinois&quot; target="”_blank”">Glen Ellyn, IL</a>,
a western suburb of Chicago (pop. 27,000). The proposed code
and resolution are attached; see below.<br>
<br>

Are Americans turning First Amendment free speech into a fetish? The
reason I ask this question is because, after writing this sentence in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/carrigan-free-speech-case-goes-suprem…; target="”_blank”">a
recent blog post</a> — "Saying that a local legislator [with a conflict of interest] has a free
speech right to vote is no different than

I've written before about some of the problems relating to the Hatch
Act's prohibition of local government employees running for office if

On today's Palm Beach County (FL) Board of Commissioners <a href="http://www.pbcgov.com/PubInf/Agenda/agenda.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">agenda</a> is
approval of an Interlocal Agreement with the city of Lake Worth. The
agreement is one of many that will be entered into between cities and
towns in the county to give the county ethics commission jurisdiction
over the municipalities' ethics training, advice, disclosure, and

Oxytocin is a hormone released by the hypothalamus portion of the brain
which, among other things, makes people trust each other more. In other
words, one could argue that local government ethics seeks to increase
the release of oxytocin in the brains of people when they think about
their local government.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/science/11hormone.html&quot; target="”_blank”">An

This second blog post on the briefs filed concerning whether the
Carrigan case should be accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court glances at
arguments in the briefs filed by the two parties and then makes a different argument for why the First Amendment has no place in this sort of government ethics matter. Making this argument gets to the root of how the Constitution, and government ethics, protect the public. If only the courts would let the Constitution and government ethics work together, as they should, instead of placing them at loggerheads.<br>
<br>

<b>Note:</b> I made a few important changes to this blog post on January 10, in conjunction with the posting of my analysis of the parties' briefs in this case.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.nevadajudiciary.us/index.php/advancedopinions/785-carrigan-v…; target="”_blank”">The Nevada Supreme Court's

<a href="http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110106/OPINION01/101060319">An
editorial
in yesterday's <i>Star Press</i></a> of east central Indiana calls
for passage of a state law to prevent municipal employees from sitting on a
body that oversees their department or agency's budget. The focus is
primarily on preventing city and county workers from sitting on city
and county councils.<br>
<br>

It not only takes a number of officials to allow unethical conduct to
occur, it also takes a number of officials to undermine the effect of a
good ethics program. An ugly example occurred recently in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Providence,_RI">North
Providence, Rhode Island</a>, a city where three former council members