<b>Updated:</b> November 20, 2013 (see below)<br>
<br>
The gift regulation proposed by Philadelphia's ethics board last
week (attached; see below) provides a great opportunity to consider
many issues involving gift bans and exceptions.<br>
<br>
It's a great thing that the ethics board has chosen to provide
guidance with respect to the city's gift ban, which is not itself
very clear. However, I don't think it did a very good job. I'm a big

<div class="WordSection1">
<p align="center"><span>“When spiderwebs unite,<br>
they can tie up a lion”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br>
</span><span>Ethiopian Proverb</span></p>

<p align="center"><span><img width="300" height="300" id="Picture 1" src="files/spiderweb02.png"></span></p>

<b>Party Committee Members on EC</b><br>
According to <a href="http://www.courant.com/community/newington/hc-newington-no-ethics-compl…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Hartford <i>Courant</i> this week</a>, a Newington, CT
mayoral candidate, and council minority leader, who has made ethics
allegations against the incumbent mayor has chosen not to file an

What can a local official do when he is required to withdraw from a
matter that involves a close personal friend who's in hot
water due to that official's feud with another official? What do you do when you're caught between a rock and a hard place? The
district attorney of Putnam County, NY is faced with this odd and
difficult mix of personal and public obligations, at least if what
he is saying is true.<br>
<br>

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/functional-definition-government-empl…; target="”_blank”">A
recent City Ethics blog post</a> discusses the value of a
functional definition of a government employee with respect to
government ethics. That is, a private individual who does government
work for the government has the same obligations to the community as
a government employee.<br>
<br>

It all started with the indictment, on charges of bribery and theft,
of a Fats, Oil & Grease inspector back in November 2010. It led
to <a href="http://www.ajc.com/documents/2013/aug/21/document-dekalb-special-grand-…; target="”_blank”">an 83-page grand jury report in August 2013</a>, which set out the misconduct involving the DeKalb County (GA) Department of
Watershed Management (DWM) procurement process, and made

<b>The Privatization of Economic Development</b><br>

In many jurisdictions, lawyers have sought to be excluded from
ethics program jurisdiction, arguing that their conduct is regulated
by their state's attorney disciplinary process. Recently, in Louisiana,
other professionals have sought to be excluded from the state ethics
program's jurisdiction (which includes local officials) pursuant to
a different argument.<br>
<br>
The issue is, When do employees of a private company become government
employees for purposes of ethics program jurisdiction over them?<br>

A colleague asked me recently about the argument that withdrawal
from participation by a legislator, who cannot delegate to someone
else, "disenfranchises" that legislator's constituents. Since
disenfranchisement is a terrible thing, the argument goes,
legislators cannot be asked to withdraw from participation, but only
to disclose their conflicts.<br>
<br>

It's exciting to read a column on a local government ethics matter that shows as deep understanding and as clear explanation as <a href="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/clear+conflict+interest…; target="”_blank”">the
column by Ottawa <i>Citizen</i> editorial board member Mohammed
Adam</a> that appeared yesterday. The column focuses on the problems that arise when a