In the news

The Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court this week says that, for the purpose of First Amendment free speech rights in a political context, corporations are persons. Until now, they were considered fictional persons, since they lack such things as arms, brains, and the right to vote.

Will the majority's conclusions affect conflicts of interest law? Here's a...

According to a January 15 memorandum, a week from today the Dallas city council will be considering an amendment to the city's ethics code, which would exclude municipal management district (MMD) board members from the ethics code (it has already been approved by the council's...

When I started getting involved with my town's government several years ago, I quickly found that limited access to budget and other financial information was a serious problem. The town government would not even put the annual budget online, despite the fact that my town has town meetings to discuss the budget and a budget referendum thereafter. It was clear that the board of selectmen and the department heads did not want the public to be able to prepare for these meetings and ask difficult...

Assuming you can learn a lot from the mistakes made in local government ethics matters in cities and towns other than your own, there is a great deal to learn from a simple ethics matter that, through a number of mistakes, oversights and, apparently, partisanship has been turned into a big issue in the city of Torrington (CT; pop. 36,000). There's also a lesson to be learned about the confidentiality of ethics commission decisions.

"My e-mail boxes are full of angry letters about [former Baltimore mayor] Dixon's retirement package being left intact. The deal to resolve this case and get Ms. Dixon out of office seems to have sparked more public emotion than the mayor's transgressions." (Dan Rodricks' column in the Baltimore Sun)

One of the ugliest aspects of local government ethics is the desire for...

As I mentioned in a recent blog post, the Broward County (FL; home of Ft. Lauderdale) commissioners are seeking to have an ethics code (enforced by an inspector general; it's being drafted) apply to county employees, as well. For some reason, this not only must go to referendum, but must also be approved by a majority each of state senators and representatives whose constituency touches on Broward County...