The Model Code makes Ethics Commission investigations confidential. However, upon a finding of probable cause, Ethics Commission proceedings become public. In addition, disclosure statements, advisory opinions, waiver requests, and documents filed in Ethics Commission proceedings are public.

Please share your opinions on and experiences with the confidentiality vs public nature of Ethics Commission proceedings and documents. What problems are created by each, and why are each of them important? How does a community balance the two?

This is the place to comment on the penalty provisions of the Model Code, to recommend alternative penalties, to share experiences with various penalties and the lack of certain penalties, and to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various penalties. For example, please share your experiences with ethics commissions that have the power to suspend or remove employees, as well as with situations where this power is reserved to the legislative body or other individuals or bodies. There are other specific issues raised in the comments to these provisions.

This is the place to comment on the Model Code's miscellaneous provisions, and to suggest different language as well as additional provisions.

<h2>218. Miscellaneous Provisions.</h2>
1. No existing right or remedy may be lost, impaired, or affected by reason of this code.

This is the place to comment on, discuss, and share alternative content and language relating to the declarations of policy that can usually be found at the beginnning of municipal ethics codes. Most declarations are very short and often ignored, since they cannot be enforced. But they are important in showing the community why ethical conduct is more important than just being good and fair.

Below is Robert Wechsler's introduction to the Model Municipal Ethics Code. This is the place to comment on issues raised and positions taken in this introdcution.

Introduction

This is the place to comment on and discuss the City Ethics Model Code Project. Topics might include the project's format, the user-friendliness of the online format, the nature and tone of discussions, whatever.

City Ethics' Model Code Project assumes that an ethics code is central to municipal ethics programs.

But this raises several issues. How important is an ethics code to an ethics program? Can an effective ethical environment be created without any sort of written ethics code? If an ethics code is necessary, should it be aspirational or in the form of a law (or, as in our Model Code, both), and if in the form of a law, should it be enforceable?

In the November 5 issue of the New York Times Book Review, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/books/review/Kinsley.t.html?ex=116434… Kinsley wrote</a>, "The biggest flaw in our democracy is ... the enormous tolerance for intellectual dishonesty. Politicians are held to account for outright lies, but there seems to be no sanction against saying things you obviously don't believe. ...

On November 15, 2006, David Damron of the <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-lamar1506nov15,0,3621262.story">Orla… Sentinel reported on Lawson Lamar</a>, the local state attorney's call for "sweeping new ethics laws he said would limit the influence of developers and other special interests on city and county governments. In a Nov.

<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.