How can public officials underscore their own and their agency's commitment to ethical decision-making? Adopt an ethics code. A new Institute for Local Self Government publication explains how and offers a "menu" of sample ethics code provisions to help jumpstart the discussion.

The Ethics Commission is in place to investigate allegations of unethical behavior in government, to render legal and ethical advice to government employees and officials and to raise awareness in the public and private sector about the County’s ethics laws.

The PA Times section of the American Political Science Association is running a series of articles on ethics in the public administration workplace in the April Issue

The Better Government Association has produced a new report that details a measure of the relative strength of existing laws that promote integrity in each of the fifty states. It describes the extent to which each state has protected itself against possible corruption and made its processes open and accountable to it citizens. Transparency, Accountability and Limits (“TAL”) provide the underlying logic for the rankings of each of the integrity measures. The report is available as a PDF.

• Los Angeles City Ethics Comission
• City of San Francisco Ethics Commission

This series, Holding These Truths: Empowerment and Recognition in Action, presents case studies for a future conflict resolution textbook. It has been successfully piloted with several international classes. Those, who benefit most, stress the importance of carefully studying this introduction. Because the case study format is intentionally unique, written in an interactive and non-linear workbook style, unlike many introductions, the information provided here is required for understanding the case studies. Readers are encouraged to send comments and critiques directly to the author. Because of the deliberate one-of-a-kind format of the text, detailed page-by-page comments and questions are welcome. A list of the entire series is included below.