A trash board member attends a homeowners association meeting to
talk about potential
changes to the city’s residential trash service. Also in attendance is a representative from the company
that has the city's landfill contract. After the trash board member
makes a short speech, she leaves the meeting and asks the company
representative to answer questions from the audience. This was apparently not
planned.<br>
<br>
The city's trash collector, under a contract up for renewal and for

Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit, in <a href="http://articles.law360.s3.amazonaws.com/0253000/253524/10-10088.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">its
decision in <i>U.S. v Renzi</i></a>, considered what constitutes a
"legislative act" with respect to the constitutional Speech or Debate

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/taking-state-laws-account-when-drafti…; target="”_blank”">Last
week, I wrote</a> about a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision
invalidating a Montgomery County's ethics code to the extent it applied to the
employees of independent agencies, such as the district attorney's
office.<br>
<br>

Reading the Supreme Court majority and dissent opinions in <i>McComish v.
Bennett</i> (attached, see below; actually <i>Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v.
Bennett</i> at the Supreme Court level) is a very jarring experience that I
highly recommend to anyone interested in government ethics. One
opinion presents the world as we know it. The other opinion exists in a
different world, a world without action and inaction on the part of

<b>Update</b>: September 27, 2011<br>

It's fascinating how different issues are important to local government
officials in difference places at different times. I couldn't say that
officials will always dig in their heels and fight this ethics
provision, or that another ethics provision never raises an eyebrow.<br>
<br>
Take Broward County, FL, for example. After numerous arrests and
convictions of local officials, the county commission passed a new
ethics ordinace, and the county's citizens voted to have this ordinance

<b>Update: June 30, 2011</b> (see below)<br>
<br>
One thing you can say for James Bopp, Jr. (an attorney who has taken
many campaign finance cases to the Supreme Court for organizations that
oppose certain campaign finance regulations) is that he doesn't beat
around the bush. He's a straight shooter. The problem is the "shooter"
part. Shooting is not what people should do when it comes to ethics advice.<br>
<br>

It is important to take state laws into account when drafting ethics
provisions, especially in local governments that do not have home rule
charters. Here are two situations in the news where this was not done,
and ethics reform has been undermined. Dealing with the state laws from the beginning could have made the ethics codes, and the ethics reform process, far better.<br>
<br>

Just because it happens in New York City doesn't mean it will happen in
the average city or, especially, town. Right? No, it can happen, only the numbers will probably be smaller. Two situations
described in today's New York <i>Times,</i> both of them effectively centered on the hiring and failure to oversee consultants, are worth knowing about.<br>
<br>

It staggers the imagination how combative local government officials
can sometimes be with respect to ethics commissions. <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/self-interest-and-transparency-local-…; target="”_blank”">A
year ago, I wrote</a> about a former Sioux Falls (SD) council member,
Kermit Staggers, who attacked complaints filed by the city's ethics