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Anonymous complaints are both important and problematic. Without anonymous tips and hotlines, our justice system would not work nearly as well as it does. With ethics programs, officials involved in unethical conduct often have great power in the community, and the people who know what they are doing are often the very people most vulnerable to their retribution.

And yet there is an air of cowardice around anonymous complaints, possibly even moreso now that people make anonymous...

It's amazing how quickly a legislature can move when a bill is so embarrassing, the state's major newspaper calls it "Great for unethical public officials. Lousy for taxpayers." How quickly? Same day service.

This just happened in Alabama, according to an article in yesterday's Birmingham News, a day after...

In many states without state enforcement of local government ethics, the compromise position pushed particularly by local government officials is to have the state mandate local ethics codes, but let local governments decide what's right for them. The motto of this position is, "One size does not fit all."

Size does matter, but not nearly as much as is often asserted. A strong ethics code is right for every size town or county. Larger cities and counties can use the same provisions...

Update below (August 19, 2009)
Here's a recipe for conflicts of interest. Create a new kind of county commission to hand out grant money. Require that commission members include representatives from public and private agencies that handle the very services the grants are intended for. Stir until frothy.

What's amazing is that, according to...

One of the biggest obstacles to ethics reform in some U.S. states and Canadian provinces is the possibility of state enforcement of local ethics. For example, in Connecticut, there has been talk for years at the state level about either having state enforcement or state requirements. Even though it has all been talk, and the towns and cities have successfully talked it down, the same town and city CEOs have said that it's silly to talk about local ethics reform when something might happen at...

Two months ago, I wrote a blog entry about the en masse resignation of the Jackson County (MO) ethics commission, and said that this was a sign that things were seriously wrong in that county. Little did I know.