Ethics commissions serve a vital role in democracy by enforcing various laws and rules intended to preserve the public’s trust in government. Continuous improvement of enforcement practices is necessary because the public relies on ethics commissions to apply ethics laws impartially and cultivate a government culture committed to public service.

CLC designed this analysis to offer proven solutions for ethics commissions looking to optimize their enforcement practices. CLC researched and interviewed state and local ethics commissions nationwide and identified the following 10 enforcement upgrades:

For each feature, the relevant ethics commissions provided practical insight on why they implemented the feature, the benefits, the resource costs, and lessons from their experience.