Issue

February 2008

Related Content

Article President’s Message Jim Madaffer

Infrastructure, Vital Services and More: 2008 Priorities

The League’s strategic priorities for 2008 include expanding infrastructure investment.

Article City Forum Terrence Murphy

New Programs Provide Funds for Street and Road Improvements

Two new programs for California local governments leverage current sources of funding to finance road improvement projects.

Article Features Darrell Steinberg

SB 375 Explained

Senator Steinberg (D-Sacramento) offers insights into the thinking behind his bill.

Article Features Eva Spiegel

Legislators from Local Government Weigh In

The 2007-08 Legislature is a special class because former local government officials now constitute a majority in both the Senate and Assembly. When these new members took office in January 2007, they brought fresh ideas and a local perspective to statewide policy-making.

Article Features Joshua W. Shaw

Why Funding Public Transit Is Critically Important

Joshua W. Shaw is executive director of the California Transit Association (CTA). He can be reached at josh@shawyoder.org. For more information about CTA, visit www.caltransit.org .

Public transit vehicles carry millions of Californians, providing traffic congestion relief and vital access for residents. But state policy-makers are not investing adequately in public transit. Since FY 2001, they have shifted, loaned or just plain cut $2.94 billion in transit funding.

Article California Cities Helen Putnam Award for Excellence

Cathedral City Neighborhoods Vote to Build Infrastructure

Cathedral City won a Grand Prize for this project in the Public Works, Infrastructure and Transportation category of the 2007 Helen Putnam Award for Excellence program. For more information about the award program, visit www.cacities.org/helenputnam.

Article Everyday Ethics for Local Officials

Semper pro Populus: Fiduciary Duties and Public Service

This column is a service of the Institute for Local Government (ILG) Ethics Project, which offers resources on public service ethics for local officials. For more information, visit www.ca-ilg.org/trust. ILG thanks the following individuals for their contributions to this article: Buck Delventhal, San Francisco City Attorney’s Office; Joe Pannone, Aleshire and Wynder; Richard P. Shanahan, Bartkiewicz, Kronick & Shanahan; and Louis Leone, Stubbs & Leone.

QUESTION

As the chief executive for a local government agency, I have seen elected officials become bogged down in the details of various ethics laws. Instead of examining the proper thing to do in a specific situation, the focus shifts to whether a certain course of action will get an official in trouble with the law.