Ethics Training

Consultants often fall between the cracks of government ethics. They are contractors, but professionals rather than suppliers or construction companies, and they often act just like government officials, only they're not on the payroll. And yet the ethics rules that apply to government officials often do not apply to consultants. Often, ethics commissions don't even have jurisdiction over consultants.

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What responsibility does a candidate have to check on those who make contributions to his or her campaign? Is there a greater responsibility when the candidate is running for a law enforcement position, from sheriff to D.A. to judge?

These questions were raised with respect to a situation in Dallas County, where the sheriff accepted large contributions from two convicted felons, according to...

Time Limitations on Ethics Proceedings in Louisiana, and Why They're Bad
The Louisiana ethics board handles ethics, disclosure, campaign finance, and lobbying for the state and for the state's local governments. It is, like all ethics agencies, understaffed, underfunded, and overstretched. So according to an article in Monday's Baton Rouge ...

This is a follow-up to yesterday's blog post on ethics fines. This week, I've been reading Karen Pryor's bible on positive training, Don't Shoot the Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training (Bantam, 1999).

I'm reading the book to get ideas for training the puppy I will soon be getting. Positive training is a more...

Government ethics e-newsletters are a good source of ideas, and something worth considering for your local government's ethics commission or ethics officer. Atlanta's new spring 2010 newsletter, Ethics Matters, is a good example of what such an e-newsletter can do.

Patricia Salkin, director of the Government Law Center at the Albany Law School and author of the Law of the Land blog, which I often refer to, is teaching an online ethics in planning and land use regulation course for Rutgers University...