2014_1112_Ethics Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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people not to accept their government's decisions as fair. A democratic bovernment does not thrive when there is a lack of trust in those who govern it. Other goals of a local government ethics probram include (1) to stop ethical inisconduct before it becomes criminal inisconduct, and (2) to establish best practices and a health7T ethics environment at the level where most elected officials learn the ropes. Local government is where the individuals who become our state and federal representatives too often experience their first poor ethics environment, learn the wrong rules, misplace their loyalty, and begin to f'eel a special entitlement. Eff'ective local boverninent ethics prob ams indirectly create healthy ethics environments in state and federal bovernment organizations, as well. Finally, government ethics is not a policy, but a process. This process complements procurement, grant, and land use processes and, like them, is essential to accountability and democracy. 1. Fiduciary Duty One reason that government ethics is described in terms of obli�ations is that government officials have a fiduciary duty or ol�ligation to�z�ard the community for which they �vork. The obligation government ofiicials have toward the community is unlike any other obligation. Go�•ernment ethics deals �vith conflicts that sometimes arise between this special obligation and an official's other obligations. Another way of understanding an official's fiduciary duty is by looking at it from the point of view of the public. The public elects representatives who spend the public's money and make decisions about the community which affect its residents' lives. Our representative system can work only if the public has confidence that its representatives, and those appointed or hired by its representatives, are seelang to benefit the community rather than themselves and those with whom they have special relationships. We cannot know much about the character of those who work in our local government, and we cannot expect our representatives, or those they appoint to office, to be as competent as we would like, or have as good judgment as we would like, but we can at least expect them not to misuse their office to benefit themselees or those to whom they have personal obligations that conflict with their obligations to the community.