<br>Looking at government ethics through the appearance standard, as
Dennis Thompson did in his book <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Congress-Individual-Institutional-Corrupti…; target="”_blank”">Ethics in Congress: From Individual to Institutional Corruption</a></b>,
reveals the great importance of independence to ethics advice and
enforcement. No one is in a worse position to see appearances of

<br><br>
In <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/ethics-congress-i-institutional-corru…; target="”_blank”">my

first post</a> on Dennis Thompson's book <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Congress-Individual-Institutional-Corrupti…; target="”_blank”">Ethics

My second volume of summer reading is a classic, Dennis F.
Thompson's <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Congress-Individual-Institutional-Corrupti…; target="”_blank”">Ethics

In Georgia, Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) are a creation of
state government (they're in the amended 1984 state constitution)
that involves local governments in serious potential conflicts of
interest, in order to allow developers to fund their public
infrastructure with tax-free bonds. CIDs are a clever idea, but
cleverness is often inconsistent with government ethics. Smith,

Election time can be a good time for local government ethics. Good
government candidates spout all sorts of interesting ideas about
ethics independence, budgeting, transparency, and the like, which
are rarely heard between elections.<br>
<br>
Take, for example, Leland Yee, who is running for mayor of San
Francisco. His <a href="http://www.lelandyee.com/issues/plan-for-an-independent-city-hall/&quot; target="”_blank”">Plan

<a href="http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110731/NEWS02/107310355/How-Chr…; target="”_blank”">A
very lengthy article in yesterday's <i>News Journal</i></a> looks at the
history of relations between Delaware legislators and Christopher
Tigani, formerly the top executive with Delaware's top liquor
distributor. The article provides an instructive look at corporate and personal

Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues to make small government ethics improvements
in Chicago. Yesterday, <a href="http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/mayor/Press%20Room/…; target="”_blank”">according
to a city press release</a>, the council passed five ethics
reforms, all but one of them involving lobbyists. The principal

It's not every day that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/nyregion/political-links-seen-behind-…; target="”_blank”">an
article about an insufficiently bid county contract</a> appears on the
front page of a major newspaper, but that's what happened today with
the New York <i>Times</i>.<br>
<br>

It is sometimes hard to see what campaign finance has to do with
government ethics, that is, conflicts of interest. Campaign finance
involves candidates getting elected, while conflicts of interest
have to do with decisions made by elected officials. What they have in common is that both
areas are intended to help officials act for the public interest rather
than their own.<br>
<br>
Two recent judicial decisions show how far campaign finance law has
been moving away from government ethics law. Why? Because the First Amendment

<br><br><br>This is the second of two posts looking at Kathryn Schulz's excellent book, <b><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=5OCnB78Bsp0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=be…; target="”_blank”">Being
Wrong: