In Hawaii, "Aloha" is not just a greeting. It also is a way of
treating people, of thanking them. In other words, it often involves
a gift. That explains the headline of <a href="http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2013/07/01/19418-can-too-much-aloha-b…; target="”_blank”">a
Honolulu <i>Civil Beat</i> article yesterday</a>, "Can Too Much Aloha Be

Lawyers and confidentiality can both be serious obstacles to the effectiveness of a
government ethics program. An ethics case in Trumbull, CT provides a
good look at how this can happen.<br>
<br>
<b>Attorneys on an Ethics Commission</b><br>
According to <a href="http://www.trumbulltimes.com/11080/ethics-complaint-dismissed-herbst-ba…; target="”_blank”">an

<b>Allen County, IN</b><br>
According to <a href="http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20130615/LOCAL/306159987/1002/LOC…; target="”_blank”">an

<b>Prince George's County, MD</b><br>
Prince George's County had a big scandal involving the county
executive back in 2010. The new county executive vowed to make
serious ethics reform a priority, and did some valuable things in

In June, the Phoenix council took a step toward ethics reform,
based on the recommendations of a task force (I critiqued the task
force recommendations in an April post entitled<span> </span>"<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/disappointing-report-ethics-task-forc…; target="”_blank”">Disappointing

Over the last few weeks, while I was putting the finishing touches
on the second edition of the book <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/ethics%20book&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>Local Government
Ethics Programs</i></a>, there was a lot of action in the area of
ethics reform. In the next few blog
posts, I will summarize the action.<br>
<br>

Some people incorrectly believe that a conflict of interest requires an official
not to vote in such a way as to benefit himself. That is, if the
official might benefit from a vote, it's okay for him to vote
against it, because that shows that the official is not seeking to
benefit himself.<br>
<br>
What is odd is to see this position taken by an ethics commission.

According to <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23453397/colorado-secretary-s…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Denver <i>Post</i> last week,</a>these are the words of Colorado's Secretary of State after the state
ethics commission found him in violation of an ethics provision, on
account of using state funds to attend the Republican national

Does a council member who is a realtor have a conflict with respect
to any council matter that affects real estate, including a matter that affects property values ? That appears to be
the view of NJ Superior Court Judge Grasso in a decision this week,
according to <a href="http://www.app.com/article/20130619/NJNEWS/306190125/Voting-conflict-pu…; target="”_blank”">an

The greatly improved and expanded second edition of City Ethics' resource book <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/ethics%20book&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>Local Government Ethics Programs</i></a>
will be up on the City Ethics website this weekend. See the