The situation of Rose Pak, a power broker for San Francisco's Chinese-American
community who was featured a week ago in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/us/rose-pak-a-chinatown-power-broker-…; target="”_blank”">a
New York <i>Times</i> article</a>, raises some interesting
questions. A paid consultant to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, she

“The concern with potential corruption does not stop just because
the relationship has entered the bedroom.’’<br>
<br>
For those of you who think my blog needs a little spice, this is a
good ice breaker. These are the words of Kathay Feng, head of
California Common Cause, spoken at a meeting of the Fair Political
Practices Commission, California's state ethics commission, which

A good followup to <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/lessig-effects-elected-officials-depe…; target="”_blank”">my
last blog post</a>, on Lawrence Lessig's book, is <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7387331n&tag=contentMain;cbsCaro…; target="”_blank”">what

Lawrence Lessig's excellent new book <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=pOd9J3vvWhkC&printsec=frontcover#v=one…; target="”_blank”"><b>Republic,

Can a local ethics commission be lobbied? It's conceivable, especially with respect to recommendations for ethics reform. It is
important for an ethics commission to have an ethics code provision
or regulation that prohibits ex parte communications relating to any
proceeding. But with respect to ethics reform recommendations, the public's input is important, and there would seem to be no
reason why a registered lobbyist shouldn't be able to put in her two

This fourth blog post on Philip Zimbardo's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good-People/dp/08129…; target="”_blank”"><b>The

Lucifer Effect</b></a> is a miscellany of various ideas in the book
that have relevance to local government ethics.<br>
<br>

This third blog post on Philip Zimbardo's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good-People/dp/08129…; target="”_blank”"><b>The

This second blog post on Philip Zimbardo's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good-People/dp/08129…; target="”_blank”"><b>The

A year and a half ago, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/moral-clarity-iii-ethics-environments…; target="”_blank”">a

One thing jumped out at me from <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/science/earth/04pipeline.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article on the front page of the New York <i>Times</i> today</a> that
deals with a common government ethics situation. The situation
involves a lobbyist hired because he had a close personal and
professional relationship with the head of a department that had to