In the news

Sacramento recently had an interesting situation, which set off accusations of conflicts of interest. According to an article in the Sacramento Bee, the newly-elected weak mayor came into office with a volunteer transition team, consisting primarily of people who have business with the city or represent people and entities that have business with the city.

The Baltimore mayor's attorney has, only days after his client was indicted, given a course to drafters of local government ethics codes on how not to define "doing business" with a local government.

When the entire ethics commission of a major county resigns, something is seriously wrong. This is what recently happened in Jackson County, MO, home of Kansas City and Independence.

According to an article in yesterday's Nevada Appeal, the Nevada Commission on Ethics has appealed the district court decision which removed its jurisdiction over state legislators participating in legislative conduct. The Commission...

Last June, I wrote about the state prosecutor's investigation of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, which was being taken before a grand jury. I focused on a series of ethical problems Mayor Dixon had in her pre-mayoral days and how they built toward these more serious alleged offenses. A little more than six months later, the grand jury has brought...

“There’s no conflict,” the mayor said last night. “It wouldn’t be a story if his name wasn’t Menino.” (from a recent Boston Herald article)

This is Boston's mayor, Thomas M. Menino, speaking about his son's year-old job for a construction company that has done a great deal of business with the city, which regularly gets permits from the city, and which has given a lot of...