Contractors and Vendors

Many ethics codes expressly state that government officials and employees may not allow the use of city stationery for any purpose other than city business. The principal goal of this rule is to prevent officials from using city stationery for personal purposes, such as campaigns, business transactions, and charitable solicitations. The rule is part of the more general prohibition of the misuse of city resources and of the city's power and reputation as the manager of the community.
...

Harvard professor Michael Sandel's new book What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (Farrar Straus, 2012) has a lot to say about the effect of commercial, market values on American culture, including on American government. Sandel's book focuses on "the expansion of markets, and of market values, into spheres of life where they don't belong. … We need to ask whether there are some things money should...

A front-page article in yesterday's New York Times provides an excellent portrait of a government official who, although doing much good work, made it all about himself and those with whom he has special relationships. Although his misconduct caught up with him only when it took the form of the alleged sexual harassment of his...

Yet Another Mayoral Charity Mess, This Time in Toronto
According to an article in the Toronto Star this week and another in the Globe and Mail yesterday, today Toronto's...

This post looks at the final three essays in Corruption and American Politics, an essay collection edited by Michael A. Genovese and Victoria A. Farrar-Meyers (Cambria, 2011).

Pay to Play in the Municipal Bond Market
In "Influence Peddling and Voter Suppression," Thomas A. Hollihan looks at the municipal bond market, where sweetheart deals...

Update: Counsel for the Housing Authority informed me that it was the Authority board, through him, that originally notified HUD of problems, and that another counsel was involved in some of the relevant transactions. Therefore, I have made some changes to the original post.

An editorial in today's New Haven Register sets forth allegations about the West...