Local Government Attorneys

At last week's COGEL conference, I learned about a judicial case involving the Anne Arundel County (MD) Ethics Commission, which has been going on for six years. A decision of the Court of Special Appeals last November is worth a look. There's a lot of interesting material for local government ethics professionals. Two of the issues the case raises are the difference between legal ethics and government ethics,...

Update: December 1, 2010 (see below)

Last week, the Texas Attorney General issued a legal opinion on the role of the county attorney in representing and advising the El Paso County ethics commission, which was established in 2009.

The county attorney herself...

More from Madison. According to an article last month on the Channel3000.com website, a stagehands union sent 28 copies of a book on creating and maintaining healthy arts organizations to members of the Madison council and members of an ad hoc committee on the future of the city's arts center. The union insists that the books were loaned, not given, and that the book doesn't even take a position on how...

Although the ethics proceedings involving Rep. Charles Rangel (NY) are at the federal level, there is a lot to be learned from them that is relevant at the local level.

Yesterday, Mr. Rangel walked out of a meeting of the adjudicatory subcommittee of the House ethics committee, insisting that he could not afford a lawyer and asking for an extension. He has apparently run up $2 million in legal fees, and his lawyers ended their representation of him when he could not pay. Pro bono...

Almost two years ago, I wrote about the self-serving nature of attempts at ethics reform in the village of Niles, outside Chicago. A lot has happened since then, but in terms of an ethics program, not much.

According to an article in the Niles Patch, in early October the village's board of ethics agreed, in a 3-2 vote, to send its...

According to an article in the Palm Beach Daily News, Florida law "forbids government bodies from advocating for voters to vote yes or no in a referendum election, and from spending funds to advertise for that purpose." But as with all laws, there are ways to end-run this prohibition, and the town of Palm Beach's council and city...