This week, a citizen in the village of Niles, IL (pop. 30,000) made
a proposal for applicant disclosure, something every ethics program
should have, but most do not. According to <a href="http://niles.suntimes.com/news/12092763-418/niles-ethics-board-defers-d…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's Niles <i>Herald-Spectator</i></a>, the proposal

Today, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-brib…; target="”_blank”">the
New York <i>Times</i> ran a length investigatory report</a> on Walmart's
extensive bribery of local Mexican officials intended to rush
through permits and zoning approvals, reduce environmental impact
fees, and gain the allegiance of these officials.<br>
<br>

<h4>"God helps those who help themselves, and you certainly did that."</h4><br>

For the second time in a year, a local ethics commission has been
the subject of a grand jury report. The first was San Francisco's
(see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/civil-grand-jury-report-san-francisco…; target="”_blank”">my
blog post</a>). There, it was a civil grand jury and the focus was
on the commission. Here and now, it is a criminal grand jury, and

<b>Update: December 20, 2012</b> (see below)<br>
<br>
It looks like outsourcing may finally come to local government
ethics. No, this doesn't mean that a city's hotline will be picked
up by someone in India (in fact, hotlines in some localities are
already outsourced to corporations). What it means is that the
ongoing failure of scandal-ridden San Bernardino County (CA) to come

Here's an interesting conflict situation out of Forsyth County,
Georgia. According to <a href="http://www.forsythnews.com/section/5/article/12553/&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Forsyth <i>News</i></a>, a county commissioner owns a
company that buys county water and sells it to county residents who
used to have wells. The company owns the infrastructure that
supplies water to four subdivisions in the county. It is one of

According to <a href="http://www.kcmayor.org/http:/www.kcmayor.org/uncategorized/ethics-refor…; target="”_blank”">the
blog of Kansas City, MO's mayor</a>, Sly James, the KC Commission

<br>
<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Bju8SS6mMjgC&dq=corrupt+cities&source=…
Cities: A Practical Guide to Cure and Prevention</i></a>, a book by
Robert Klitgaard, Ronald Maclean-Abaroa, and H. Lindsey Parris
(Institute for Contemporary Studies, 2000), is an excellent study
and analysis of municipal anti-corruption efforts primarily outside

There has been a controversy (which I missed when it originally
arose a few months ago) regarding what Mitt Romney and his aides did
with their government computer hard drives when Romney left office
as governor of Massachusetts. According to <a href="http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/11/romney-purch…; target="”_blank”">an

Across the nation, there have been numerous occasions when local government
officials oppose disclosure requirements, sometimes even the most
minimal ones (for example, the name of an elected official’s
employer). Arguments are made about privacy, identity theft, and
overweening government. There is talk about rights, but never about
obligations.<br>
<br>
But the bottom-line argument is that if you require financial
disclosure, no one will volunteer for local boards and commissions.