"Investigators, like prosecutors, must understand that the desire to go
after big game to garner big headlines may be as unethical as the
offenses they are pursuing."
This is the central point of a
formal statement made by the new chair of the New York State
Commission on Public Integrity concerning the report of the Inspector...
In the midst of a big corruption probe, a pair of back-and-forth ethics
complaints filed with a nearly toothless ethics commission in El Paso
doesn't seem like much. But it does sheds some light on how much El
Paso government is about the players rather than the citizens. And it
touches on some issues that are important everywhere, including the use
of lawsuits to cripple ethics commissions, legal fees for ethics...
Updates below
Anyone who doubts the need for truly independent ethics commissions
need look no further than what has been happening in Philadelphia this
week. Or should I say "this year"?
It seriously undermines the public's understanding of government ethics
when highly visible decisions misrepresent basic government ethics
concepts. This occurred yesterday, when the Alaska State Personnel
Board found that Governor Sarah Palin did not violate the Alaska
Executive Branch Ethics Act when she wore a jacket with the logo of
her husband's sponsor as the starter...
In a recent blog
post, I wrote about the fining of the executive director of
Philadelphia's board of ethics for violating confidentiality rules.
That blog post focused on dealing responsibly with a possible violation of an ethics code provision (although not actually an ethics provision, but instead a disciplinary rule). Now I would like to focus on confidentiality rules and
penalties in the government ethics context, and the...
According to an
article on yesterday's Philly.com website, the Philadelphia Board
of Ethics fined its executive director $500 for violating the
confidentiality rules of the city's ethics code. The story is
instructive in how to handle such difficult matters. (Disclosure: I
know and have a lot of respect for both of the individuals in this
matter.)