<p class="MsoNormal">What is more horrible than the scheme of two eastern
Pennsylvania judges to fill two for-profit juvenile detention centers with
thousands of youths who would not otherwise have been removed from their
families and schools?</p>

<p class="MsoNormal">Should an option in a light-rail train car manufacturing
contract be exercised, rather than going to a competitive bid, because the
company says it will move its plant, and 5,000 jobs, into the county?</p>

<p class="MsoNormal">This dilemma is being faced by the Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), and the recession and the stimulus
package are both involved. So is an accusation of conflict of interest.</p>

Type "ethics" into the search line at utah.gov, and all that comes up
is Archery Ethics Course Online.<br>
<br>
In response to what are referred to in Utah as last year's "ethics wars," <a href="http://le.utah.gov/%7E2009/bills/hbillint/hb0159.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">a new
legislative ethics bill </a>has been drafted. What is interesting for

It's good to see that, upon his death, attention is being given to the
life of Donald C. Alexander, the IRS Commissioner who stood up to
President Nixon at the end of Nixon's time in office.<br>

The <a href="http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=308177&quot; target="”_blank”">Michigan
House passed</a> <a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2007-2008/billengrossed/House/p…; target="”_blank”">a
bill</a> in November requiring all local governments in Michigan to set

When Mayor John Peyton decided to hire Carla Miller as Jacksonville’s
Ethics Officer in 2007, the city was in crisis. A grand jury was
investigating violations of state open-meeting laws by nearly every
member of the former City Council. The FBI had begun sniffing around
JaxPort, probing dubious contracts and allegations of influence
peddling. The city had spent $36.5 million to develop the old Shipyards
site, with nothing to show for it. It had spent another $26.8 million
on the courthouse with similar results.

One of my pet peeves is that many if not most local government ethics codes limit the
definition of "conflict of interest" to situations where an official's
interest involves money. But there are many personal interests that create a
conflict, even though no money is involved.<br>

I recommend <a href="http://www.icma.org/pm/9009/public/pmplus1.cfm?&quot; target="”_blank”">an
essay by Donald Menzel</a> from the October issue of PM, the magazine of
the International City-County Management Association (ICMA), entitled
"Strengthening Ethical Governance in Local Governments." Menzel is a
former president of the American Society for Public Administration,
author of <i>Ethics

When is a conflict sufficient to require an official to resign (or not
take a position in the first place)? This question involves a lot of
gray area, and little black and white. What sorts of interest are
enough to undermine
public trust, and what sorts of interest provide opportunities for
officials to benefit unfairly from their positions? Here are three
recent situations where an official's external job was seen or not seen
as creating a conflict serious enough to require resignation.<br>

Move over, presidents, movie stars, and models. Welcome a local
government ethics officer to your ranks.<br>
<br>
Yes, at last a local government ethics officer's picture is on the
cover of a magazine. The ethics officer is City Ethics' own Carla
Miller, and the magazine is Northeast Florida's <span><a href="http://www.folioweekly.com/&quot; target="”_blank”">Folio