Confidential Information

<b>It's Not the Dead Bodies, It's the Living Ones</b><br>
"He knows where the bodies are buried at Metro." According to a
local mayor as quoted in <a href="http://www.mapleridgenews.com/news/239509171.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article yesterday in the Surrey North <i>Delta Leader</i></a>, this is an
important qualification for someone going from Metro Vancouver (BC)

<a href="http://www.comptroller.tn.gov/repository/SA/pa13044.pdf%27&quot; target="”_blank”">A
November audit by Tennessee's Comptroller</a> applies the <a href="http://www.acquisition.gov/far/index.html&quot; target="”_blank”">Federal
Acquisition Regulation</a> (FAR) to a state procurement situation,

According to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/09/30/ethical-l…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Washington <i>Post</i> this week</a>, the federal Office
of Government Ethics has reminded agencies to tell their furloughed
employees that "they remain employees of the Federal Government

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/20/us/politics/anita-dunn-both-insider-a…; target="”_blank”">A
front-page article in today's New York <i>Times</i></a> looks on a
conflict situation that is usually ignored:  the unpaid adviser
who effectively sells her inside, often confidential information to
her clients. She is not technically a lobbyist, because her

I'd like to call your attention to a new local government law
blog that, among other issues, covers government ethics. It's called <a href="http://sogweb.sog.unc.edu/blogs/localgovt/&quot; target="”_blank”">Coates' Canons: NC
Local Government Law Blog</a>, and it's a joint effort of  local
government law faculty members at the School of Government at the
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Albert Coates, after whom the

Recusal is a touchy subject for government officials, for two principal
reasons. One, withdrawing from a matter can appear to constitute an
admission of misconduct. This is because so many people, and even
ethics codes, consider it wrong to have a conflict. Actually, recusing
oneself is a way of dealing responsibly with a conflict, and is the
opposite of misconduct.<br>
<br>
Two, raising the issue of a conflict can disclose information the
official would rather keep personal. After all, the conflict involved

<b>See Update Below</b><br>
The accusations made by New York's Inspector General that the executive
director of New York's Commission on Public Integrity leaked
information about an investigation to a close associate of the target of the investigation (the governor) are very upsetting. But there are
two important lessons to be learned here.<br>
<br>
One, ethics commissions should be as independent as possible, so that
when such things occur, it is clear that they are personal rather than

According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/us/politics/07stevens.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in today's New York </a><span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/us/politics/07stevens.html&quot; target="”_blank”">Times</a>,</span>

<b>Update below</b> (August 19, 2009)<br>
Here's a recipe for conflicts of interest. Create a new kind of county
commission to hand out grant money. Require that commission members
include <span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody">representatives
from public and private agencies that handle the very services the
grants are intended for. Stir until frothy.<br>
<br>