2014_1112_Ethics Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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3. Conflicts Conflicts of interest in local government are just a subset of our daily conflicts. We have conflicts ainong our oblibations all the time. Our obligations are based on our personal and professional relationships. We can only fulfill our obligations to our children and our spouse, our parents and our siblings, our employer, partners, clients, customers, and other business associates, and our relati�res, friends, pets, and neighbors at the expense of our other obligations, inclucling our obligations to ourselves. We are constantly juggling these obligations, and those to whom we have obligations are constantly disappointed in us because of the priorities we set among our obligations. These priorities are necessitated by our limited time and energy. Juggling obligations goes beyond the constant schedulinb and prioritizing of our time. There are expectations placed on us, and we are pressured — lobbied, influenced — by everyone in our lives to give them and their interests a higher priority. All these people feel they have a right to our time and attention, and there are no rules to help us decide which to sho�v preference to or to what extent. One good thing about government ethics is that it has a central rule: that no preferential treatment should be shown. Contractors must be selected by competitive bidding. Of$cials cannot hire their relatives. Nor can friends be given access to public works equipment unless everyone can. Considering government ethics from the point of view of preferential treatment shows ho�v important fairness is to bovernment ethics. The public must be assured that decisions are made f'airly, excludinb no one simply due to a lack of connections, especially when it comes to jobs, contracts, and the use of the community's equipment and spaces. Obligations, and the relationships on which they are based, work like stress does in our bodies. They don't cause the disease of corruption, but they do help undermine our immune system. Our natural selfishness is strenb hened when we can tell ourselves that we are helping our family, friends, and business associates live a better life. Just as stress increases our susceptibility to disease, oblibations increase our susceptibilit�- to acting unethically with respect to the public, to putting our oblibations to others ahead of our obligations to the public. Conflicts are based on obligations, or perceived obligations. Conflicts that are not dealt with responsibly create stress in the relationship between a local bovernment and the