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It's arguable that a bigger problem than unethical conduct in local
government is the way local officials respond to allegations of

Monday evening, I learned about the serious consequences that
can result from not giving ethics commission members a clear
understanding of what government ethics is, and what it is not.<br>
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The occasion was the consideration by the Democracy Fund board, which
oversees the public campaign financing program in New Haven, of a
possible violation of the program's ordinance and regulations.<br>
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I am the Democracy Fund Administrator. Focused on the topics before the

Sometimes, conflicts are built right into ethics laws, partly because
it is in the political interest of those with conflicts, and partly
because they don't even view those laws as ethics laws.<br>
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A good example of this is the Connecticut law (<a href="http://search.cga.state.ct.us/dtsearch_pub_statutes.html&quot; target="”_blank”">CGS
§9-623</a>) that places enforcement of municipal campaign finance

<a href="http://sogweb.sog.unc.edu/blogs/localgovt/?p=5018&quot; target="”_blank”">A post
yesterday in Coates' Canons: NC Local Government Law Blog </a>raises
an interesting issue about the situation of a local government
candidate who has an interest in a contract with the local government
which, by NC law, is prohibited not for candidates, but for a winning
candidate the day he or she takes office. This provides a good occasion

The paths of justice have some odd twists to them. Consider these
twists. As I wrote in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/legislators-independence-ethics-enfor…; target="”_blank”">a
blog post almost exactly a year ago</a>, both parties to a case
involving a Baltimore council member's alleged acceptance of a bribe
argued that a statutory provision entitled "Action for defamation
against local government

Everyone knows about ambulance-chasing lawyers, but until reading <a href="http://citizensvoice.com/news/ethics-code-would-ban-coroner-s-employees…; target="”_blank”">an
article in today's <i>Citizens' Voice</i> of Luzerne County</a> (PA), I had
never heard of hearse-chasing deputy coroners. Maybe I would have known

How many hats can a local government attorney wear when it comes to
government ethics? This question arises out of a state bar grievance
filed against <a href="http://www.houstontx.gov/legal/about.html&quot; target="”_blank”">Houston's
city
attorney</a> by a member of the city council.<br>
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The way elected officials often think about government ethics
enforcement, it's almost as if they weren't being investigated and given
a hearing, but were being stoned. And in a certain sense, that is what
is happening.<br>
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According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/science/05angier.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in the New York <i>Times</i> last week</a>, David Sloan Wilson, an

The power of the pen is great, and one place that it is especially
powerful in the field of government ethics is in summaries and
directions. Those who write summaries of ethics laws and directions for
filing complaints or other forms can have an enormous effect on
government ethics, either intentionally or negligently, by
mischaracterizing ethics laws and procedures.<br>
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For Independence Day, here's a blog post that pulls together all
past blog posts on ethics commission independence. EC independence is
essential to an effective and respected ethics program, and yet a small
minority of ECs are truly independent. Those individuals seeking to
make their city or county's EC independent or to set up an independent
EC need all the ammunition they can get. That is, they need to know
what the options are, what the advantages are, and how ineffective and