Complaints/ Investigations/Hearings

Is it important that an ethics complaint be based on information that is known personally? Some ethics codes require this. But the fact is that many ethics violations are done secretly. It can take some serious, professional investigation to obtain the facts and relevant documents. This is why investigations by journalists are so valuable. What they uncover is often used by citizens, good government organizations, and others as the basis for an ethics complaint. And sometimes a government...

I believe that an ethics commission/ethics officer approach to local government ethics is far better than an inspector general approach. The simultaneous creation of an EC/EO approach in Palm Beach County, FL and an IG approach in neighboring Broward County provides a small laboratory for seeing which works better.

Thankfully, Brittany Wallman of the Sun-Sentinel has compared the two approaches in two articles,...

It's always disheartening to see high-level officials misuse an ethics program for the sake of personal revenge or, as the official says in the case I'm looking at here, to get "my name cleared."

According to an article yesterday in the Austin Statesman, the last mayor recently filed two ethics complaints against the mayor who defeated...

An interesting question arose in an ethics proceeding in Kennesaw, GA, a city of 30,000 just outside of Atlanta. According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a Kennesaw Watch blog post, both dated July 17, soon after an ethics complaint was filed against the city's mayor, the mayor...

Gift Bans
In Sunday's Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, former state representative Roger Hines wrote a column with the title "What Does Corruptibility Have to Do with a Dollar Figure?" Hines considered the state's $100 limit on gifts from lobbyists. After talking about the value of lobbyists...

According to an article in the Times of Trenton yesterday, the FBI raided the homes of Trenton's mayor, as well as the homes of his brother and a major campaign contributor.

For those interested in government ethics, the best thing about the raid is...