Ethics Commissions/Administration

Monday evening, I learned about the serious consequences that can result from not giving ethics commission members a clear understanding of what government ethics is, and what it is not.

The occasion was the consideration by the Democracy Fund board, which oversees the public campaign financing program in New Haven, of a possible violation of the program's ordinance and regulations.

I am the Democracy Fund Administrator. Focused on the topics before the board, I never...

How many hats can a local government attorney wear when it comes to government ethics? This question arises out of a state bar grievance filed against Houston's city attorney by a member of the city council.

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle last week, the council member alleged that the city...

The power of the pen is great, and one place that it is especially powerful in the field of government ethics is in summaries and directions. Those who write summaries of ethics laws and directions for filing complaints or other forms can have an enormous effect on government ethics, either intentionally or negligently, by mischaracterizing ethics laws and procedures.

Take, for example,...

For Independence Day, here's a blog post that pulls together all past blog posts on ethics commission independence. EC independence is essential to an effective and respected ethics program, and yet a small minority of ECs are truly independent. Those individuals seeking to make their city or county's EC independent or to set up an independent EC need all the ammunition they can get. That is, they need to know what the options are, what the advantages are, and how ineffective and unrespected...

A trash board member attends a homeowners association meeting to talk about potential changes to the city’s residential trash service. Also in attendance is a representative from the company that has the city's landfill contract. After the trash board member makes a short speech, she leaves the meeting and asks the company representative to answer questions from the audience. This was apparently not planned.

The city's trash collector, under a contract up for renewal and for which...

Update: September 27, 2011
According to Melissa Griffin's column in the Examiner yesterday, the board of supervisors' Government Audit and Oversight Committee met last week to discuss the civil grand jury report discussed below. The results of the committee consideration of the report are included after each relevant section below.

The San Francisco Ethics...