<a href="http://davisvanguard.blogspot.com/2007/02/conflict-of-interest-on-count… an interesting, intelligent lay discussion</a> about a particular alleged conflict of interest, and how to deal with local conflicts in general. It centers around an entry in a local-politics-oriented blog in Davis, California.

Transparency is one of the most important elements of government ethics. And yet government ethics itself is often kept secret. Respect for the privacy of those investigated is given preference over the rights of residents to know what is going on. Ethics commissions often do not file annual reports and, when they are required to, the reports are rarely placed on a city's website.

Fred Anderson's review of Gordon S. Wood's book <i>Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different</I> in a recent issue of the <i>New York Review of Books</i> contains a passage on government ethics that gives an interesting context to our thoughts about it.

One of the best ways to create a more ethical environment in local government is to have more people run for office. The more people who run for office, the more pressure is put on the closed world that many local governments preserve. This closed world is preserved through the lack of interest not only of voters, but also of potential candidates, who feel the only way to get elected is to know the right people in the right way. Few people know what the options are.

Either the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is the head of a vicious manhunt unknown since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, or Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent J. Fumo has not only failed to apologize for all that he has done, but he has, like so many unethical politicians before him, gone to the other extreme: denying every accusation and presenting himself as a victim.

This is the place to discuss negotiating with unions regarding penalties that apply to their municipal employee members. This is a sensitive area, where open discussion could be especially helpful to preventing friction by considering union perspectives and requirements as part of the process of preparating or amending an ethics code.

Some municipalities limit some provisions to certain officials, so that, for instance, employees do not have to go through the same level of annual disclosure as officials do, or only officials and employees dealing with contracts, development, zoning, etc. need file annual disclosure forms. This is the place to discuss different levels of application of an ethics code's provisions to different levels and types of official and employee.

The ethics reforms coming out of New York and Utah provide two contrasting, yet equally questionable approaches. In New York state, ethics legislation was negotiated among the new governor, the assembly speaker, and the senate majority leader, behind closed doors. In Utah, the governor said he would issue an executive order.

As I state in my comments to section 207 of the model code, cutting the funding of ethics commissions is a popular way for politicians to prevent investigations from happening. Therefore, ethics reformers are always looking for new ways to ensure funding.

In Oregon, legislators decided to turn to local governments as a dedicated source of funding of an ethics commission that oversees local government officials.

What's the difference between wearing multiple hats and having conflicts of interest?

Former Vancouver City Manager Ken Dobell is the project manager (contractor, not employee) for a cultural precinct in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is also chair of the finance committee of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. He is also a long-time adviser to British Columbia's Premier, Gordon Campbell (under contract; formerly Deputy Minister to the Premier).