'School’s out, summer is here, and it’s time for the Ethics and Leadership Camp for Public Officials at Santa Clara University.

In an effort to prevent the next big government ethics scandal, mayors, city managers and other public officials from around the country will spend two days, June 27 and June 28, (from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.) dissecting ethical dilemmas and trying to engineer a new, ethically enlightened public servant for the 21st century.

“With the kinds of problems we’ve been seeing on the national level, citizens and lawmakers are starting to say we’ve got to do something to defuse these land mines,” says [Judy] Nadler, senior fellow in government ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, and former mayor of the city of Santa Clara.

Among the campers will be officials from San Diego, Los Angeles, Gilroy, Los Altos, Santa Clara and San Jose as well as elected and appointed officials from cities and counties around the country.

In addition to Nadler, “camp counselors” will include:

Kirk Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and former chair of Santa Clara County Political Ethics Commission.

Carla Miller, co-ethics officer for the city of Jacksonville, Fla., and board member of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL), and founder of CityEthics.org.

LeeAnn Pelham, executive director of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.

Elsa Chen, assistant professor of political science at Santa Clara University and leader of the Public Sector Program.

Media opportunities:

June 27, 9 a.m.: Ice breaker where campers will don hard hats for interactive exercise

June 27, 12 noon: Chuck Reed, Mayor of San Jose will give presentation

June 28, 9:15 a.m.: Campers will be asked to put on protective masks and sanitize their hands during a presentation about ethics during a flu pandemic – who gets medicine, transportation, etc.

This year’s camp theme: “Bridging the Ethics Gap”'