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their personal interests ahead of the public interest, can more easil�r bet by with videos or <br />online interactive training, or training froin within the agency or from the personnel <br />department. <br />Live bovernment ethics training should begin with an introduction to the concepts of <br />government ethics and to the blind s�ots that make it so difficult for officials to deal <br />responsibly with their conflict situations. Next comes a consideration of the city or county's <br />principal ethics rules, and a look at other ethics-related laws and bodies in the city, county, <br />and state, including personnel and compliance offices, the inspector beneral or auditor, and <br />criminal enforcement authorities. <br />Then the class should break up into small groups to discuss speci$c case studies, using <br />local and regional cases as much as possible, since these will mean most to the participants. <br />Case studies should be approached from the point of view of both complaints and requests <br />for advisory opinions, since the approach taken to each is different. <br />The most important thing an official should take out of an ethics training class is that, <br />when she is faced with a conflict situation, she should ask the ethics officer what to do, just <br />as she would ask a lawyer when faced with a lebal question or an engineer when faced with <br />an engineering question. <br />Many local officials are resistant to govermnent ethics training, due to a false belief <br />that people naturally understand ethics or that they learn ethics at home. This is not the <br />"ethics" that is involved in bovernment ethics. No one has a natural or home-taubht <br />understanding of how to recognize and discuss complex conflict situations, how to deal <br />responsibly with them, or when to ask for professional ethics advice. <br />This is especially true of ethics cominission meinbers. They do not have a natural <br />understanding of how to deal with minor inatters, how to investigate major political <br />footballs, or how to interpret ethics provisions. Ethics cominission members need <br />specialized training that goes far beyond the two hours normall�� given to ordinary officials. <br />Ma�rors, local lebislators, managers, and their staffs also need extra traininb. <br />Ethics Advice and Waivers <br />The other most important way of providing guidance and pre��enting ethical misconduct is <br />the provision of ethics advice by an independent ethics officer or ethics commission. <br />t6 <br />