Law Commons^™

Profile In Public Integrity: Cynthia Carrasco, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Before becoming the Inspector General for the state of Indiana, Cynthia Carrasco was the executive director of the Indiana Ethics Commission. In 2015, she was named one of Indiana’s “Forty Under 40” by the Indianapolis Business Journal. A graduate of the Indiana University (IU) Robert H. McKinney School of Law, she serves as a volunteer for the IU Latino Alumni Association and the Indiana University Health Patient-Family Advisory Council.

Profile In Public Integrity: Heather Holt, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Heather Holt is in her sixth year as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. Before joining the Ethics Commission in 2006 as the Director of Policy and Legislation, Holt served as an ethics officer for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. She has served as legal and policy counsel to several cities in San Diego County, the United States House of Representatives, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and the Maine State Legislature. She has also served as the director of a nonprofit agency that provides assistance to military families. A Southern California native, Holt holds …

Does Seeking Cell Site Location Information Require A Search Warrant?: The Current State Of The Law In A Rapidly Changing Field, Wesley Cheng

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

In 2015, a divided panel of the Fourth Circuit ruled in United States v. Graham that the collection of cell site location information (CSLI) without a search warrant was an unreasonable intrusion under the Fourth Amendment. With Graham, the Fourth Circuit split from all of the other circuits to have decided this question. Earlier this year, however, on May 31, 2016, an en banc Fourth Circuit reversed course, holding contrary to the original Fourth Circuit decision in United States v. Graham that a warrant is not required for CSLI.

With the new en banc decision the Fourth Circuit now …

An Honest Day's Work: Regulating State Lawmakers' Outside Income, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

The practice of permitting legislators to earn outside income, income apart from compensation for service in office, is a frequent battlefield in the fight against legislative corruption in the United States. Critics of the practice argue that such income creates potential conflicts of interest, pitting legislators’ personal pecuniary interests against the public interest. As public servants, legislators should not be accountable to other paymasters and should not use their legislative positions to enrich themselves beyond their official salary. On the other hand, legislators point out that their positions are generally low-paid and part-time, and that they have the right—perhaps …

An Overview Of State And Local Anti-Corruption Oversight In The United States, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

The United States has a decentralized system of anti-corruption oversight unique in the world. Instead of a national anti-corruption agency, like most countries, the federal government has a profusion of institutions including the Government Accountability Office in the legislative branch, the Office of Government Ethics in the executive branch, and more than 70 inspectors general responsible for monitoring a specific department or program.

At the state level, the oversight landscape is even more variegated. Some states, cities, and counties have multiple agencies while others have one or none at all. Some watchdog agencies have large staffs with sweeping investigative powers, …

Mexico City's Citizen Comptroller Program, Patricio Martinez Llompart

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Since 1997, Mexico City has had an autonomous, elected government responsible for meeting the needs of nearly nine million metropolitan citizens. Controlling corruption has been a key public priority. In 2004, the city government passed the Citizen Participation Act (Ley de Participación Ciudadana), which established a landmark program to enlist citizen volunteers directly in the day-to-day work of procurement oversight.

These trained volunteers, called “citizen comptrollers,” act as ground-level watchdogs to observe and evaluate public contracting processes. The “bottom up” approach to municipal anti-corruption control pioneered by the Citizen Comptrollers program can serve as an innovative model for cities and …

Profile In Public Integrity: Robert Lafrenière, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Robert Lafrenière is the Commissioner of Quebec’s Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (l’Unité permanente anticorruption, or UPAC), which he has led since its creation in 2011. In early 2016, he was appointed to a second five-year term. Prior to UPAC, Lafrenière served for two years as Deputy Minister of Quebec’s Ministry of Public Safety (ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec, or MSP). Earlier in his career, Lafrenière served in Quebec’s provincial police force (Sûreté du Québec), and taught policing at the Collège de Maisonneuve in Montreal.

Profile In Public Integrity: Hubert Sparks, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Hubert Sparks was appointed the first inspector general of the Appalachian Regional Commission in 1989 and was also the first inspector general of the Denali Commission. Previously, Sparks served 29 years in oversight roles at Offices of the Inspector General at the Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Veteran’s Affairs. He is a member of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and served on the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Sparks holds a B.B.A. in accounting from the City College of New York.

Profile In Public Integrity: Jane Feldman, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Jane Feldman was recently appointed as the first executive director of the New York Assembly’s new Office of Ethics and Compliance. She previously served as the first executive director of the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission. After leaving the State of Colorado, Feldman opened Rocky Mountain Ethics Consulting, which worked with local governments to foster ethical organizational cultures. Previously, she co-founded Great Education Colorado and Colorado Protectors of Public Schools, bi-partisan organizations which advocated for increased funding of public schools. Feldman began her career as an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office. She also served as …