Centers/Programs

Arthur J. Holland Program on Ethics in Government

Current and Recent Activities

November, 2010
David Skaggs, Chairman of the Office of Congressional Ethics was the 2010 Holland Program speaker. His major talk at the Douglass Campus Center on November 15th, "Ethics in Congress: The Spirit vs. The Letter," was well received by a crowd of several hundred Rutgers students, faculty and staff, and New Jersey political activists and observers. Skaggs' remarks, photos from the event and more available here.

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A session on "Ethics in Government" was presented by the Holland Program at the New Jersey League of Municipalities' annual convention in Atlantic City, as it has been for many years. Paula Franzese, Seton Hall law professor and past chair of the State Ethics Commission, was the keynote speaker with responses from Bill Kearns, Jr., general counsel to the League of Municipalities, Bill Schluter, former New Jersey state legislator, and John Weingart, associate director of the Eagleton Institute. Sophie Heymann, mayor of Closter, presided over the discussion, which was attended by 300 local officials.

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The Governor’s Local Government Ethics Task Force released a draft report (dated September 2010) recommending changes to improve ethics administration in municipalities, counties and local authorities (report available here). The Task Force, created by Governor Jon Corzine through Executive Order and continued by Governor Chris Christie, is chaired by Ingrid Reed, who recently retired from the Eagleton Institute and is now a senior fellow with NJ Future. The report relied on research about implementation of the current state statute, which was last revised in 1991, by Reed with assistance from  Eagleton Graduate Fellow Anna Mitchell and Undergraduate Associate Katherine Lavelle.