In the news

Either the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is the head of a vicious manhunt unknown since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, or Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent J. Fumo has not only failed to apologize for all that he has done, but he has, like so many unethical politicians before him, gone to the other extreme: denying every accusation and presenting himself as a victim.

There's a lot of talk about organizational culture and the effect it can have on individuals' unethical conduct, but it's rare to find reported instances of poor organizational cultures that aren't extreme, such as Chicago. Even Enron had an excellent ethics program, and its misconduct appears to have been limited to high-level management.

One thing that's good about local government is that so much of it is done by volunteers. Volunteers aren't professional politicians. They have something better to do with their time.

Yes, most of them do. But for many, government service is central to what they do with the great bulk of their time.

Local government attorneys have special conflict of interest problems. Should there be ethics rules particularly aimed toward them?

Gerald Ford's passing revives the memory of one of the least remembered parts of the story of the Watergate affair: the pardon of Richard Nixon.

Remembering the pardon is important because it shows two important things about government ethics enforcement. First, how ethics rules are enforced is more important than the rules themselves. If rules are enforced with vengeance or if rules are enforced mechanically, they will not be respected except by those who desire vengeance instead of justice and those who do not understand the need for flexibility in enforcement.

<p><img align="right" alt="" src="files/robw.jpg" /></p>

<p>Robert Wechsler is the Director of Research-Retired for City Ethics.</p>

<b>Open Letter to Illinois Chief Justice Robert R. Thomas</b>:

The news media are probably the most important single element in providing oversight in government ethics matters. And the most effective way to keep the news media from doing their job is to file a libel suit.

<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com"><img src="http://www.csmonitor.com/csm_themes/html/themes/csm_simple-wide/images/…; alt="csmonitor.com - The Christian Science Monitor Online" border="0" height="42" width="500"></a>
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<a href="http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_4192705">http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_4192…;

<b>Colton credit card had phone-sex charges</b>

COLTON State and local authorities are investigating hundreds of phone-sex calls and dozens of hotel bills charged to the city-issued cell phone and credit card of Councilman Ramon Hernandez.

A Classic commentary on the Judiciary - with a comic (if a little sad) <a href="http://magic-city-news.com/article_6471.shtml&quot; target="_blank">demonstration</a> from my own Australia to paint the picture (rather well I thought...)