Ethics in a small town can be very problematic when one large company with special property interests comes into town. Whether it is a developer, a landfill owner, or other sort of business that seeks to get property or expand its holdings at an inexpensive price, its needs often lead it to tempt individual local government officials or dominate the town's politics.

Everyone knows it’s not right for government officials to favor their friends, but because friendships are so difficult to define, they don’t appear in ethics codes. Relatives can be defined, domestic partners can be defined, business associates can be defined, but not boyfriends or pals or old buddies. This is one of the limitations of dealing with ethics in the form of a law.

Confidentiality is a sticky issue in ethics investigations. It appears to be the norm, but many people do not seem to understand why it exists, or what duties it creates.

Back to New York City, where more information is coming out about the special “slush” funds given out to city council members.

What’s been happening recently in Lincoln, Nebraska, concerning city officials having contracts with the city, provides food for thought on a few basic conflicts of interest issues.

One issue is whether city officials and employees should be allowed to have contracts with the city. Or are full and open bidding provisions enough? Or full disclosure?

Another issue is whether a city council is the right body to decide this question.

Yet another issue is the inclusiveness of conflicts language.

Once again, the New York Times has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/nyregion/25council.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an article</a> today that touches on municipal ethics issues. A municipal scandal does wonders.

Today’s New York Times has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/us/politics/22diamond.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an article</a> that focuses on John McCain’s dealings with a big Arizona developer, Donald Diamond.

There are two issues here that I would like to bring up. First, the ultimate defense, which McCain’s campaign employs: helping a constituent. McCain “had done nothing for Mr. Diamond that he would not do for any other Arizona citizen.”

T³ is a 3-pronged approach to the enhancement of transparency programs and the encouragement of truthful communication in Government ethics programs.

In <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html&quot; target="”_blank”">a long and very important article</a> in today’s New York <i>Times</I> about the conflicts of interest of so-called television and radio network military analysts, one analyst says that the network he works for asked few questions about analysts’ outside business interests, the nature of their work, or the potential of that work to create conflicts of interest.

Earmarks are usually dealt with as a spending and democracy problem. All that money being thrown away on projects no one actually votes to fund.