2010-02-09

Public Service Ethical Dilemmas Analyzed

	Public service is rife with ethical dilemmas and challenges.

Facing a specific ethical dilemma? Check out our analysis of a series of commonly faced dilemmas, including their legal and ethical dimensions. These analyses are also featured on a bi-monthly basis in the League of California Cities' monthly magazine, Western City. The Institute has also published a compendium of these columns, Everyday Ethics for Local Officials: Finding Your Way (including columns through December 2006).

Each installment of Everyday Ethics can be downloaded without charge. Hard copies of the publication, which also includes the Institute's Key Ethics Law Principles bookmark, may be ordered for a fee, which supports the Institute's work in the ethics area. The packet is a helpful orientation tool for newly elected or appointed officials.

(Note: Files are in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat required.)

Establishing a Public Service Ethic

• Doing the Right Thing: Putting Ethics Principles into Practice in Public Service
• Ethics Resources for Further Reference
• Fiduciary Duties and Public Service

Decision-Making Issues

• Making Politically Unpopular Decisions
• Balancing Local and Regional Interests When You're Asked to Serve Both
• Deciding When Not to Participate in an Agency Decision: Abstentions and Disqualifications
• Leading By Values: When Your Decision will Affect a Friend or Supporter
• Property Ownership in Your Jurisdiction
• Fair Process Requirements in Adjudicative Decision-Making
• Let's Not Make a Deal: Vote-Trading and Similar Practices Raise Legal and Ethical Issues

At Meetings

• Promoting Civility at Public Meetings
• Dealing with a Grandstander
• Being Less than Forthright about an Agency's Decision: The "Conditioning-a-Project-to-Death" Example

Personal Activities

• Commitment to Nonprofit Causes
• Using Public Office to Promote One's Business Interests
• Raising Funds for Favorite Causes
• Campaigning for Re-Election
• The Ethics of Speaking One's Mind

Gifts

• The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Changes to the Gift Rules
• Receiving Gifts as a Public Official
• Dealing with Holiday Gifts
• Freebies: Friend or Foe?

Administrative Issues

• Hiring: When a Relative Wants a Job
• Securing Goods and Services: Contracting Issues
• Elected Officials Giving Direction to Staff
• Telling the Truth When It Hurts
• Promoting a Culture of Ethics
• How Your Agency Counsel Should Advise You When Agency Contracts Represent a Conflict of Interest
• Taking the Bite Out of Blogs: Ethics in Cyberspace

Use of Public Resources Issues

• Legal and Ethical Considerations Associated with Honoring Public Service
• Badges for Officeholders and Prominent Members of the Community: A Bad Idea
• Career-Saving Tips on Mass Mailings
• Buying Meals for Others on the Public's Dime
• Using Public Resources for Charitable Purposes
• Attending Conferences

Dealing with Ethics Issues

• Understanding the Role of Ethics Commissions
• Dealing with Scandals Including When an Elected Official Flouts the Law
• What to do When You Suspect an Ethics Problem: An Eight-Step Strategy
• Taking Chances with Ethics Laws: A High Stakes Gamble
• Making a Federal Case Out of Corruption
• For Whom the Whistle Blows