In Jacksonville-- where City Ethics' founder, Carla Miller, is the
Ethics Officer -- the ethics commission is taking the lead in ethics
reform, according to <a href="http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=52806&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> in the Jacksonville <span>Daily
Record. <br>
<br>

It may be midsummer, but it's still a busy season for local government
ethics. Here's how a few local governments are dealing with ethics
reform.<br>
<br>
Palm Beach County commissioners agreed to create an inspector general
and ethics commission, according to <a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/0…; target="”_blank”">an

<b>Update below</b><br>
The only thing worse than stacking ethics commissions with politically
active, and apparently loyal, members is refusing to renew the term of
a member who has been a vocal advocate of government ethics, in other
words, a thorn in the side of officials who do not follow the local
government's ethics codes. Clever officials know that one or two
members of any board can have a strong effect on
what the board does.<br>
<br>

The great majority of local governments that think they have no state
or local law or rules regarding local officials' conflicts of interest
do actually have a conflict of interest rule.<br>
<br>
This rule is hidden in Robert's Rules, which is usually the set of
rules under which local government bodies operate. Here is what it says
in §45 (Voting Procedure), in the first subsection on Rights and
Obligations in Voting (I'm quoting from the Perseus Publishing tenth
edition, pp.394-395):<br>
<br>

<span>Open Records Requests and
Ethics Proceedings</span><br>
In an unusual twist on the confidentiality of ethics proceedings,
counsel for the Colorado Springs mayor's former client, the person who gave rise to the mayor's apparent conflict of interest, has made an open records
request for all documents related to the ethics proceeding against the

A few local government ethics issues come together in the story
behind the arrest today of 44 people in a political corruption and
international money laundering ring based in New Jersey. The story is
best told, so far, in the<a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nj/press/press/files/pdffiles/bidrig0723%20re…; target="”_blank”">
press release</a> of the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.<br>
<br>

<b>Update:</b> June 29, 2010 (see below)<br>
<br>
I thought I would never write about anything concerning Gov. Sarah
Palin again, but the report on an ethics complaint against her, regarding the fund created to pay the legal expenses from
her defense against prior ethics complaints, is too interesting and valuable to ignore.<br>
<br>
The report (attached;
see below) deals with two provisions that appear in most local
government ethics codes:  misuse of office and gifts. The report's

<big>"Even the baby Jesus accepted gifts, and I don't think it corrupted
him." and "The taking of gifts does not corrupt a person. It's when
you're taking those gifts for personal gain that they corrupt you."</big><br>
<br>

While so many local governments don't take conflicts seriously enough
to require recusal, some take conflicts too seriously, and overreact.
This appears to be what happened in Elizabethtown (NY), according to <a href="http://www.pressrepublican.com/homepage/local_story_201114804.html?keyw…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's <i>Press-Republican</i></a>.<br>
<br>

Nepotism is
often left out of ethics codes because it does not seem all that unethical. Another reason for leaving nepotism out is that it is
so common, especially in the uniformed departments, that local
government officials are afraid to touch it. When nepotism rules do
appear, they often provide for grandfathering in current
nepotism, and for waivers, even if waivers are not available for other
ethics code violations.<br>
<br>