Two years after allegations made by the Baltimore <span>Sun</span>, two years after state
prosecutors began an investigation, a year and a half after being
appointed mayor (after being city council president), and six months
after being elected mayor, Baltimore's Sheila Dixon's alleged favoring of friends and family has been brought

Money is not only the root of much of the evil in government ethics, it is also
the lifeblood of government ethics. Without money, ethics commissions,
at least in cities and states, as opposed to towns, cannot do their job.<br>
<br>
Do something the legislative body doesn't like and it has a good way to
get back at you: cut off your funds or fail to fund your new
obligations. At budget time, government ethics commissions, no
matter how independent, often become just another political football.<br>
<br>

Too many of my blog entries look at instances where things did not go
right. One reason is that when things do go right, no one talks about
them. Another reason is that so often ethics problems are not handled
very well.<br>
<br>
So it's nice to read about the proper handling of a conflict situation
in Superior, Wisconsin. I suppose when you live in a town with this
name, your aspirations are greater than most cities'.<br>
<br>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/nyregion/23da.html&quot; target="”_blank”">An
article on the front page</a> of today's <i>New York Times</i> presents us with an
opportunity to focus on the special ethical responsibilities of prosecutors, and other local
government attorneys.<br>
<br>
An assistant district attorney in Manhattan, Daniel Bibb, was asked to

<p>Should an agreement between an ethics
commission and a respondent, which ends an ethics proceeding, include
an acknowledgment by the respondent that he violated the ethics law?<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/229231/&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette</a>, former Arkansas
Governor Mike Huckabee thinks not. The Arkansas Ethics Commission

If you were going to set up a local election system devoted to fairness
and to voters, how would you have registrars of voters selected? Would
you have them appointed or elected? Would you have them be party
members or nonpartisan?<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/458">Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.</a>
<br>
<br>
Let's start with electing registrars, as many Connecticut towns and

According to <a href="http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/NEWS01/306…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Cincinnati Enquirer,</a> a county commissioner in Ohio voted on
a contract that went to her non-dependent son, and she is being investigated by the Ohio Ethics Commission.<br>
<br>

My state, Connecticut, has just added itself to the at least 14 states
that provide for public official pension forfeiture. Like some of the
other states, its new law covers municipal officials.<br>
<br>
Pension forfeiture is the capital punishment of government
ethics.  It makes legislators look like they care about ethics,
and it makes people feel that justice has been done. And with all these
"good" emotions sparking supportive editorials, few think about the

Who should be on a local government pension board? Should conflicts of
interest be taken into account? These two questions are closely
interrelated, because the common answer seems to be that those with the
greatest conflict are also the most appropriate members.<br>
<br>
There are two values at odds here:  letting employees and retirees
manage their own pensions, and the public interest in having tax
dollars handled by disinterested and competent individuals.<br>
<br>

Once again, California is in the vanguard.  This time, it's blogs
by mayors, city managers, and other local government officials (for
list, click<span></span> <a href="http://californiacitynews.typepad.com/californiacitynewsorg/cityblogs.h…; target="”_blank”">here</a>;
not all of these are government officials' blogs, but many are and it's
not hard to tell them apart).<br>
<br>