Suppose you are the
administrator of wealthy, upscale county with a
strong record of good governance. In fact, you
have been the county
administrator for 14 years
and have garnered the respect and admiration
of
the Board of County Commissioners, good government
citizen groups,
and the local media.
Does your organization
have a code of ethics? Is it
effective? How do
you know?
It is widely believed that
ethics codes are desirable,
even
necessary from a
professional perspective. Yet
it is very difficult to
know
with confidence whether or not
a code deters unethical
behavior and
encourages
ethical behavior. ASPA member
Stuart C. Gilman (2005) has
written extensively on this
subject. Here are his
explanations for why
some
codes succeed and others
fail.
This article ran in the
March/April print issue of PA
TIMES. Email Editor Christine
McCrehin at
cjewett@aspanet.org to find
out how to subscribe to the
paper.
Donald C.
Menzel
In
February
2010 a Grand Jury was
impaneled by former Governor
Charlie
Crist to investigate
public corruption. In
mid-December 2010 the Grand
Jury delivered its First
Interim Report. Here are the
key provisions:
This article ran in the
January/February
print issue
of PA TIMES. Email Editor
Christine McCrehin at
cjewett@aspanet.org to find
out how to subscribe to the
paper.
Don
Menzel
A city manager’s
code of survival requires
arithmetic skills embellished
by political
commonsense—namely, how to
count to three when your city
commission has five members
and rumors are circulating
that your head is
on the
chopping block.
