In the news

This Sunday New York Times' front-page feature on how doctors are recognizing the value (ethical and financial) of apologizing provides a good opportunity to bring up again what I consider to be one of the most important topics in local government ethics.

I wrote about apology in local government in July 2006, and then in March 2007 followed it up with...

Actuary Jonathan Schwartz has received no funds from City Ethics. But it may seem like that from how perfectly today's front-page New York Times article follows up on the blog entry I posted yesterday.

In yesterday's blog entry, I argued that governments and public sector unions do not have the same right as businesses and ordinary unions to put information in a light that helps their cause. ...

The city of Vallejo, California (pop. 117,000) is about to file for bankruptcy, primarily, it appears, to allow it to void union contracts and have a bankruptcy judge rather than negotiations work out a new contract. Sajan George, an adviser to struggling public entities, has said, "There's a wave of this coming across the U.S. What happens in Vallejo could definitely set a...

A quote from a lawyer in an article in today's New York Times brought me back to what I recently promised to discuss at the end of a blog entry about Elizabeth Wolgast's book, Ethics of an Artificial Person: Lost Responsibility in Professions and Organizations.

Daniel K. Webb, the head of Detroit Mayor Kwame...

How a big-city police chief responds to his commission of an ethics violation is more important than the violation itself. The worst thing he can do is act as if he is above the law, as if ethics laws, not to mention ethics considerations, do not apply to him.

Sadly, Miami's police chief, John Timoney, has done the wrong thing almost every time he had the opportunity.

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According to a recent article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth's mayor, Mike Moncrief, made $633,000 last year from the oil and gas business. He also has an interest in several real estate developments. A committee, appointed by the mayor and council, will soon be making recommendations on rules for natural gas drilling and on fees that affect real estate development.