This week, the Broward County (FL) inspector general filed <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-broward-inspector-general-report-ethics…; target="”_blank”">a
Review of the Existing Ethics Structure</a> (attached; see below) of the countywide
ethics program that he oversees, and which came into being via
charter amendments overwhelmingly approved by the county's voters in late 2010.

Here is a concrete example of the problem of allowing local
government attorneys to provide ethics advice that protects local officials, a problem that
Florida state senator Jeff Clemens and the Florida League of Cities
want to harden into state law in SB 606 (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/florida-league-cities-ethics-reform-p…; target="”_blank”">my

When a lawyer decides to represent a private client, she does not
give up her right to vote or petition governments on her own behalf.
But what about when a lawyer decides to represent a public client,
especially as a lobbyist? Does such a lawyer give up her right to
vote on issues relating to the city government (assuming she sits on
another government's board) or petition a government on behalf of her own
beliefs?<br>
<br>
These questions arise from a case in Cincinnati, where a city

After ripping apart one Florida ethics "reform" bill, it's nice to
be able to say that Florida's legislative leaders are planning to
do some good things this year. According to <a href="http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Integrity-Florida-applauds-Gaetz--We…; target="”_blank”">an

This is the last of four blog posts on <a href="http://static.lobbytools.com/bills/2014/pdf/0606.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">Florida
Senate Bill 606</a> (attached; see below), one of the worst ethics
reform bills I have ever read.<br>
<br>
The Florida League of Cities was deeply involved in drafting these
supposed ethics reforms, which I criticize in my last three blog
posts. The question needs to be asked:  Was the League acting

This is the third of four blog posts on <a href="http://static.lobbytools.com/bills/2014/pdf/0606.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">Florida
Senate Bill 606</a> (attached; see below), one of the worst ethics
reform bills I have ever read.<br>
<br>
This post considers just one sentence of the bill: "A political subdivision is prohibited from
imposing additional or more stringent standards of conduct and

This is the second of four blog posts on <a href="http://static.lobbytools.com/bills/2014/pdf/0606.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">Florida
Senate Bill 606</a> (attached; see below), one of the worst ethics

<a href="http://static.lobbytools.com/bills/2014/pdf/0606.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">Florida
Senate Bill 606</a> (attached; see below) is one of the worst ethics reform bills I have
ever read. But it is far worse than the words it consists of. What
makes it worse is that, with respect to laws that affect local officials, it is largely the work of the Florida League of Cities
(this was confirmed to me by representatives of both the League and

Posted on January 24th, 2014 on the Harvard Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics Blog:<br>
http://www.ethics.harvard.edu/lab/blog/394-happy-birthday-citizens-unit…

January 21, 2010 was a watershed day in U.S. political history—it was the day the Supreme Court decided Citizens United. For four years we have witnessed and studied the effects of the Court's blessing of unlimited independent campaign expenditures by corporations.

A passing statement in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/nyregion/making-claim-towns-mayor-gai…; target="”_blank”">yesterday's
New York <i>Times</i> article</a> on the continuously unfolding story of
NJ governor Chris Christie's bullying led me to wonder why it is
that indictments based on sting operations focus only on the
government officials who give in to the sting's temptations. Not