Ethics

The General Assembly's top leaders named a veteran legislative staff member to the newly created position of ethics counsel yesterday, giving lawmakers a full-time lawyer to help them steer clear of controversy.Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. appointed William G. Somerville special counsel to the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics after a task force recommended the creation of the position.For the past year, Somerville has served as counsel to the task force, which was headed by U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, a 3rd District Democrat.

An Annapolis man has filed an ethics complaint against Alderwoman Louise Hammond, contending that she altered a recently passed ordinance in a way that would lessen competition for the downtown shop where she works. The ordinance, passed by the city council this month, authorized the lease of Susan B. Campbell Park for Latino Fest, an event planned for Sept. 25. At Hammond's request, the council amended the ordinance to prevent merchants from selling their products at the festival. Annapolis resident Michael Calo considers the amendment a conflict of interest because Hammond works part time at Outer Island Imports, a downtown store that sells polished stones and other rocks.

An ethics flap over Del. Elizabeth Bobo's use of her legislative e-mails to support Philip W. Kirsch's re-election to Wilde Lake's seat on the Columbia Association board of directors highlights again the fault lines in the debate over remaking downtown Columbia. On one side are people like Bobo and Kirsch, who are skeptical about parts of the General Growth Properties plan and want more safeguards for residents. On the other are those such as Kirsch's opponent, Realtor Linda Odum, and former Town Center board member Jud Malone, who back a more business-friendly position on the 30-year plan to create an urban-style downtown.

Lockheed Martin Corp. will donate $25,000 to the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation to help support the school's Center for the Study of Military Ethics, foundation officials said yesterday. Founded in 1998, the center's goal is to enhance ethical training at the academy through "education, research and reflection." The academy superintendent, Vice Adm. John R. Ryan, said the gift will "help raise the bar of excellence" among students and "create an environment for midshipmen that is stimulating and challenging."

WASHINGTON -- Ethics and politics is a growth industry. Were there a stock called "Ethics and Politics Inc." and had you been able to purchase a few hundred shares in the mid-1990s, then you would have already doubled or quadrupled your initial investment. Hold that stock till 2010 or 2020, and you'll probably be rich. People laugh when I tell them I teach a course in ethics and politics. I once taught a course in ethics and business and people laughed when I told them that, too. Yet they clearly think that the combination of ethics and politics is more bizarre than the combination of ethics and business.

THIS YEAR, the U.S. business community has had to face up to the legacy of more than a decade of questionable business practices. Like the ghosts that visited Scrooge, the spectacular collapse of the empires of Charles Keating and Michael Milken have given the business community a chance to reflect on a prosperous past and a grim future.Reckless investment of other people's money, insider trading and other unethical practices have decreased public trust, invited strict government regulation and even bankrupted some businesses.

The 8th District congressional campaign of Christopher Van Hollen Jr. accused his Republican rival yesterday of using her U.S. House stationery for campaign purposes. During the weekend, Rep. Constance A. Morella distributed a campaign letter to the press with the words "House of Representatives" and a rendering of the Capitol at the top. The letter asked Van Hollen to join her in an agreement to keep their campaigns free of so-called "soft money" advertising funded by political party committees and other outside groups.

Howard County Election Administrator Robert J. Antonetti Sr. was found in violation of Maryland's ethics laws while holding the same job in Prince George's County, according to a ruling yesterday by the state's highest court. The Court of Appeals, in a 7-2 decision, upheld a May 1997 ruling by the State Ethics Commission that Antonetti improperly hired his wife and children to elections board jobs in Prince George's County and failed to disclose their employment records. The commission found that Antonetti paid family members a total of $14,000 from 1988 to 1994 for part-time work and signed the pay authorizations for them.

WASHINGTON -- If Republican National Chairman Clayton K. Yeutter gets an idea next week about tax breaks, he probably won't tell the treasury secretary.Doing so could land him in prison.In fact, the GOP chairman and former secretary of agriculture can't talk with his old buddies in the Bush Cabinet about policy matters for the rest of this year.Mr. Yeutter is the latest prominent Republican to become enmeshed in federal ethics laws designed to slow the "revolving door" through which government officials frequently move into high-paying jobs as lobbyists.

The County Council spelled out a set of ethics rules Monday night for the influential Board of Appeals, a move designed to both discourage conflicts of interest and handle complaints.Although the bill was expected to be controversial, the council adopted it unanimously with no discussion or debate. Anthony V. Lamartina, president of the seven-member board, said he "applauded" the legislation, which establishes a procedure to respond to complaints about unprofessional conduct.The measure requires that the board "be diligent, industrious and judicious" and avoid any "actions that may embarrass or discredit [it]