Yesterday evening, I attended a meeting of my town's planning and
zoning commission. The principal agenda item involved a request for
an amendment to the town plan to allow the building of a private
recycling center in the town. The commission's secretary read a letter from the
requesting party's attorney, who is a member of another town board, withdrawing the request. The letter
said that the principal reason for withdrawal of the request was
opposition to the amendment by a small group of citizens who had

The Miami-Dade County ethics commission has been a leader in
reaching out to the community. In 2011, it co-sponsored <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/local-government-ethics-conference-be…; target="”_blank”">a
local government ethics conference</a>, which attracted people
from all over Florida. In 2012, it organized the first Ethical

A new online collaborative effort in the field of campaign
finance was launched yesterday. Known as <a href="http://fppc.ca.gov/suncenter/&quot; target="”_blank”">the SUN Center</a> (SUN
stands for States’ Unified Network, even though it includes cities

According to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/09/30/ethical-l…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Washington <i>Post</i> this week</a>, the federal Office
of Government Ethics has reminded agencies to tell their furloughed
employees that "they remain employees of the Federal Government

There is a fact of life that is very hard for many local elected
officials to admit:  most of the campaign contributions given
to incumbents and serious challengers come from two sources: 
those seeking special benefits from the government and those who
work for the government (and their unions). If both of these groups
were not permitted to make campaign contributions, local elections
would be contested with very little money, unless the government
instituted a public campaign financing program.<br>
<br>

Is it too much to ask that an ethics commission member lead the way,
set an example, with respect to the single most important aspect of
a government ethics program:  ethics advice?<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/article_7a2ae790-27e0-11e3-…; target="”_blank”">an

Here's an interesting local government ethics scenario from Ottawa
that deals with the often neglected oversight relationship. According to
<a href="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/conflict+marriage+between+transportat…; target="”_blank”">an

There is usually another side of
the coin, and that other side is often ignored in drafting a government ethics code. The
other side of the nepotism coin came up recently in an ethics
proceeding in Stamford, CT.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Ethics-probe-targets-finan…; target="”_blank”">an

"It was like dandelions. You just accept them. They were there,
something you've seen all your life."<br>
<br>
Dandelions are a perfect metaphor for institutional corruption. In
this case, the dandelions were extra payments (beyond those due to
retirees) made by Detroit's two pension funds, to active employees
(54%), retirees (14%), and the city itself (32%), the latter to

Yesterday, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/25/nyregion/25rapfogel-felon…; target="”_blank”">a
felony complaint</a> was issued against William Rapfogel, the CEO
of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a large nonprofit
social service agency that received millions of dollars in grants
and contracts from New York City, New York state, and the federal