One way to deal with possible conflicts is to nip them in the bud by
not allowing any personal communications between officials and
interested parties ("ex parte communications"). All communications must
be official, either documentary or at formal meetings or negotiations.<br>

What stronger personal interest is there than family relationships? And
yet so many people don't get the problems nepotism in government poses,
at least until it takes a chunk out of their wallets.<br>

The <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/friday/ch…; target="”_blank”">Chicago
Tribune editorial</a> on Illinois' recently passed ethics bill is a
must read. It outlines the process by which the ethics bill almost
didn't become law, despite the fact that no legislator, at any time,
voted against it, and those who delayed it insisted they were doing so

I've written a few times about the ways local government officials

<b>Update below</b>:<br>
Back in August, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/503&quot; target="”_blank”">a
long blog entry</a> praising the way San Diego's Centre City
Development Corp.'s  (CCDC) board handled a conflict matter. I
focused on the board's refusal to pull the usual San Diego (and
elsewhere) stunt of denying that anything serious had occurred.

There's a national local government annual ethics report that is
worthwhile taking a look at. It comes from the International
City/County Management Association (ICMA), the professional
organization of city, county, and town managers. To my knowledge, no
other local government executive or legislative professional
organization allows ethics complaints to be brought against its members
and enforces its code.<br>
<br>
Its annual report on its ethics program can be found by clicking at the

Because local governments' annual ethics reports serve so many purposes
-- publicizing the ethics program's existence, educating officials and
the public about what an ethics program includes, and making an example
of those who do not file disclosure forms or are found to have
participated in unethical conduct -- they should be made as easily,
widely, and inexpensively available as possible.<br>
<br>
And that means putting them up on the local government's website.<br>
<br>

Annual reports are, among other things, one of the most important, and
overlooked, enforcement mechanisms. At the <a href="http://www.cogel.org/&quot; target="”_blank”">Council on Governmental Ethics Laws
(COGEL)</a> conference last week in Chicago, the executive director of
the <a href="http://www.phila.gov/ethicsboard/&quot; target="”_blank”">Philadelphia Board of

Back in June, in the middle of <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/450&quot; target="”_blank”">a long blog entry</a> on
legislative immunity, I referred to the virtuous circle that includes
both ethics laws and the Speech or Debate Clause, which provides
legislators immunity from interference from the executive and judicial
branches. I would like to focus on this virtuous circle, and explain it
further, because I think it might be the most important argument in

Last week, the Kansas City, MO city council ordered an investigation
into possibly unethical conduct by the city's mayor, according to <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/703/story/933481.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an article in
the Kansas City </a><span><a href="http://www.kansascity.com/703/story/933481.html&quot; target="”_blank”">Star</a>.</span>