Public Administration Ethics
Ethical Challenges in the City Manager/City Councilmember Relationship
These scenarios were developed by Frank Benest, senior advisor to the International City/County Management Association,and delivered to a meeting of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Public Sector Roundtable April 20, 2012. Select one (1) of the three scenarios.
Scenario 1
A developer is proposing a major commercial development with of lots of name recognition. The mayor suggests that the council appoint her and another councilmember to a committee in order to negotiate a package of community benefits as part of the entitlement process. The city manager and city attorney are upset that staff have not been designated as the negotiators so the mayor suggests to the council that the manager, attorney and community development director attend the meetings with the developer, but the mayor and the other councilmember will take the lead.
In the negotiations, both councilmembers push similar community benefits, but the mayor and councilmember clearly have a few different priorities. The negotiations seem to drag on, but finally the developer puts together a package of benefits generally supported by the two councilmembers. At the direction of the council negotiating committee, the city manager then schedules the project and the community benefits package for an upcoming council agenda.
Public Administration Ethics
Just prior to the public hearing in front of the council, the mayor goes privately to the developer and tells him that the mayor won’t the support the project unless the developer adds to the package a pedestrian and bike trail segment that completes the community’s neighborhood trails program. The developer agrees to fund the trails segment, and the mayor indicates that she will publicly support the project at the hearing.
Scenario 2
A councilmember is actively supported by open space advocates in the region. The councilmember approaches a baylands protection, non-profit advocacy group and proposes a baylands public education program for children that could be funded by the city government and operated by the agency. After meeting with the president and executive director of the non-profit, the councilmember approaches the city’s sustainability coordinator and encourages the staff person to develop a proposal to fund the project.
The sustainability coordinator refers the councilmember to the city manager. The councilmember then meets with the city manager and strongly recommends that she schedule the proposal for council consideration. Given the ongoing fiscal challenges of the city, the manager does not feel that the proposal is a priority and suggests that the councilmember approach the mayor to see if the mayor will support the agenda item. The councilmember is upset and feels that the manager is a roadblock.
Public Administration Ethics
Scenario 3
The city manager has an excellent relationship with one of the councilmembers and gets a lot of political support from him regarding her recommendations. The councilmember makes time to meet every week with the manager and gets updated on all important city matters, including upcoming council agenda items. The manager provides more information to this particular councilmember than the other councilmembers. Based on their strong relationship, the councilmember discusses with the city manager strategy to move initiatives forward and to create majority support on the council for specific actions.
Assignment Specifics:
Answer both A and B.
Identify the ethical dilemma (from your selected scenario) and explain the dilemma. Provide no less than two (2) actions that each identified public administrator may take. Explain.
Using Practices to Promote the ASPA Code of Ethics (in this assignment folder) from the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), select one (1) of the eight (8) standards. Explain how your selected standard relates to your selected scenario. Use APA referencing style.