Ethics Commissions/Administration

The Michigan House passed a bill in November requiring all local governments in Michigan to set up ethics boards. The bill, which amends the state ethics law, requires that ethics boards either use the state law, which is minimal, or that local governments pass their own ethics laws, with...

When is a conflict sufficient to require an official to resign (or not take a position in the first place)? This question involves a lot of gray area, and little black and white. What sorts of interest are enough to undermine public trust, and what sorts of interest provide opportunities for officials to benefit unfairly from their positions? Here are three recent situations where an official's external job was seen or not seen as creating a conflict serious enough to require resignation.

So much of government ethics involves the contrast, and sometimes the collision, between ethics and law. Too often the personal aspect of government ethics is overlooked. All three get twisted together in a very simple matter that occurred last week in the Escondido (CA) city council, according to an article in the North County Times.

When it really comes down to it (and it usually does), what is the greatest enemy of trust in government, or anywhere else for that matter? Greed, power, ego, loyalty? I'd put my money on (or against) rationalization, the ability of people to justify what they do and fail to do.

What happens if an ethics commission enters into a settlement agreement in which an official admits to certain conduct in violation of the jurisdiction's ethics code, and then the official goes out into the world and says he did nothing wrong, but felt it was best for everyone to pay the fine and move on?

Well, according to an article in yesterday's...

I hate to harp so often on the problem of ethics matters being handled by criminal authorities, but when I read an article in the Nogales (AZ) International that begins as follows, I get angry.

While there was “ample evidence of incompetence,” it took more than two years for Nils Urman, former Santa Cruz County Commerce and Economic Development Director, to...