<b>Problematic Development</b><br>
According to <a href="http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20101129/OPINION03/11290301&quot; target="”_blank”">Harry
Themal's column in yesterday's <i>News Journal</i></a>,
the newly elected county executive of New Castle County (DE) wants to
review government processes "top-to-bottom." There is just one catch.

Investigations of purported ethics violations by the Middlesex County
(MA) sheriff apparently led to his suicide on Saturday. According to <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/11/28/even…; target="”_blank”">a
Boston
<i>Globe</i> chronology</a>, the sheriff filed papers for retirement on

Two important issues arise from a story about a competitive bid for a
concrete contract for an arena in Louisville which, according to <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20101127/OPINION01/311270025&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's Louisville <i>Courier-Journal</i></a>, was won by a
company solely owned by a member of the state task force that chose the

<br><br>There's an instructive local government ethics situation in the 2008
French film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068646/&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>The Class</i>
(Entre les murs)</a>, which I watched yesterday
evening. A teenage student is being given a disciplinary hearing at his
public high school in Paris after accidentally hitting a girl with his
bag and walking
out of his class. His teacher

I find it fascinating that, although kickbacks (also known as "thanks giving") are one of the central
elements of unethical conduct in local governments, I have only
mentioned them three times
in my blog posts.<br>
<br>
Kickbacks are a dirty secret for one principal reason:  they are
difficult to prove. Along with bribes, they require hard-to-obtain
proof
to tie money to conduct. Coincidentally, these are the two forms of

<b>Update:</b> December 1, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
Last week, the Texas Attorney General issued <a href="https://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/50abbott/op/2010/pdf/ga08…; target="”_blank”">a
legal opinion</a> on the role of the county attorney in representing
and advising the El Paso County ethics commission, which was
established in 2009.<br>
<br>

In <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/waivers-and-ironies&quot; target="”_blank”">a
recent blog post</a>, I wrote about how the mayor's selection for New
York City schools chancellor needed to get a waiver from the state
department of education because she lacked an educational background,
and that she resigned corporate board positions to make it clear she
was serious about taking the job, even though there were, in some

The spread of corruption from local to state to national is often
ignored. And when corruption is discovered,
there is much litigation. In fact, it's often hard to see corruption
clearly here in the U.S. That's
why the occasional look at corruption abroad is useful, like looking in
an only
slightly distorted mirror.<br>

Teachers and teachers' family members seem to be just the sort of
people to run for school boards. They have either the expertise and/or
the interest in education. But with them come conflicts of interest,
and these can cast doubt on what they're doing there in the first place.<br>
<br>
Teachers in the particular school district generally can't run for
school board seats, but many teachers don't live in the districts where
they teach. This prohibition often applies to their spouses as well, but not to

<br><br>
I don't know how I failed to hear about this novel. Maybe I'm the last
one on the block to do so, but it's been four years since <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=mnIjPwAACAAJ&dq=parker+jefferson+falle…; target="”_blank”">T.
Jefferson Parker's <i>The Fallen</i></a> was published. This detective novel
involves the murder of an investigator for San Diego's "Ethics