Conflicts

<b>“If you hold a tiger by the tail, you have a difficult choice to
make: Do you let go or not? It’s not a good thing to alienate any
legislative leader.”</b><br>
<br>
—Richard Runes, lobbyist for Glenwood Management, a large New York
state real estate developer that allegedly gave tax work to a law
firm that then made undisclosed payments to the state's Assembly
Speaker, who had allegedly recommended the law firm. The quote
refers to continuing the use of this law firm, knowing that if it

<b>Campaign Vendors Lobbying Their Candidates</b><br>
According to <a href="http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/government/ph-ac-cn-aaco-registered-…
article in the Capital (of DE) <i>Gazette</i></a>, an assistant
state's attorney for Anne Arundel County, whose political firm was
paid $200,000 by the successful candidate for county executive, is

Conflicts of interest are generally not seen to apply to local party
committees. There are almost never limitations on membership or voting on such
committees by local government employees, contractors, developers,
grantees, or others seeking financial benefits from the government.<br>
<br>

<p>Long ago, experts in philosophy, physics, and psychology recognized that reality and perception are not as different as people used to think. And yet people continue to think it. One area where they continue to think it is government ethics.<br />
<br />

<p>In <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/world/americas/dominican-plan-to-expe…; target="_blank">an article on the deportation of Haitians from the Dominican Republic in yesterday's New York <i>Times</i></a>, a police officer agonizes over the prospect of having to deport his best friend, a Haitian immigrant. “I have no choice,” he is quoted as saying.

Nepotism is a difficult topic to get a hold of. It is the most
generally accepted kind of ethical misconduct, most governments do
not keep records (or, at least, public records) of familial
relationships, and nepotism provisions are rarely enforced. For all
of these reasons, the news media do not give nepotism much coverage.
So in many governments, especially those with poor ethics
environments, nepotism is common.<br>
<br>
Kudos go to David Wickert of the Atlanta <i>Journal-Constitution</i>

I believe that the best solution to the problem of having lobbyists and others seeking special
benefits from the government sitting on government
advisory boards is to get rid of these advisory boards.
Conflicts involving these boards are important because, although they are "merely
advisory," their recommendations are often accepted, and their
members are often selected (or seen to be selected) in order to reach a particular
conclusion. The membership of such boards is difficult for well-meaning officials to balance

It's been six years since <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/474">I last wrote about how
asset forfeiture</a> is a serious temptation to engage in ethical
misconduct. I was planning to write about it again in light of a

As we know, the devil's in the details. In government ethics codes, this means
the language. In the case I will look at here, the devil's in the
verbs.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/investigations/2014/04/25/conflicts-of-i…; target="”_blank”">an
article on the WTSP-TV website last week</a>, a Florida state

On Monday, Anthony Man of the <i>Sun-Sentinel</i> wrote <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/elections/fl-ethics-lobbying-restricti…; target="”_blank”">an excellent analysis of the lobbying elements of Florida Senate bill
846</a> (a copy of the bill is attached; see below), which was
recently passed by the senate unanimously.<br>
<br>