Florida Clerks of Court and Comptrollers

Florida Clerks of Court and Comptrollers Ethics Conundrums Winter Conference Jacksonville, Florida January 30, 2014

When unethical options begin to look attractive, every layperson is liable to become a lawyer. Anita L. Allen The New Ethics, 2004, p. 26

Moral talk is often rather repugnant. Leveling moral accusations, expressing moral indignation, passing moral judgment, allotting the blame, administering moral reproof, justifying oneself, and, above all, moralizing. Who can enjoy such talk? And who can like or trust those addicted to it? Kurt Baier, The Moral Point of View, 1965, p.1

Is it justifiable to perform an evil act in order to achieve good consequences? • Is it justifiable to perform an act that is not in itself evil but produces mixed consequences, some of them beneficial and others harmful? • When only 2 actions are possible and both produce good consequences, which should be chosen? Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, 2008, pp. 120-124

Guidelines for making ethical judgments • Be aware of your first impressions. Note them carefully. • Check to be sure you have all the relevant facts. • Consider the various opinions on the issue and the arguments that have been (or could be) used to support them. • Keep your thinking flexible. • Express your judgment precisely and explain the reasoning that underlies it. Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, 2008, pp. 10-11

Ethical conundrum 1 A city resident unwittingly paid sewer bills totaling $1300 over 18 years before he discovered there was no sewer line connected to his home. Since the statute of limitations on civil suits was 6 years, the town attorney suggested that the man be reimbursed for 6 years of payments only. Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, 2008, p. 18

Ethical conundrum 2 You’re in charge of making a recommendation for a vacancy. You have formed a committee and appointed a chair to conduct a search. You get a call from your supervisor telling you that a family friend has applied and is an excellent candidate. Your supervisor says the call is in no way an attempt to influence you. The search committee recommends 3 candidates. Your supervisor’s friend is ranked #2 in what the committee tells you was a close and difficult ranking process. Would you recommend your supervisor’s friend? Would it be ethically permissible to do so? Suppose you’re the supervisor – did you do anything wrong? James Bowman and Donald Menzel, Teaching Ethics and Values in Public Administration Programs, 1998, p. 29

Ethical conundrum 3 A college student’s father is gravely ill. Near the end he get her to promise to graduate from college, and to become an architect like she’d always dreamed. She promises she will. By the time she graduates with her B.A., she has decided that in her heart she really wants to go to law school instead. Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, 2008, p. 106

Ethical conundrum 4 A carpenter with a spouse and 3 children works for a construction company that is barely able to make payroll. The carpenter is aware that the lumber on site for a current residential construction job is inferior to the grade specified by the architect, eventually the walls could warp. Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, 2008, p. 106

Ethical conundrum 5 Your office received a grant. At the end of the year you face a decision whether to return the unspent portion of the grant to a state that is in dire need; spend the money on nonessentials; or encourage employees doing valuable work on other projects to list their unfunded work under the budget for the grant, thereby zeroing-out the grant. You know that if the money is not all spent, next year’s grant will be reduced. What do you do? James Bowman and Donald Menzel, Teaching Ethics and Values in Public Administration Programs, 1998, p. 29

Ethical conundrum 5 A little girl rides the bus to school every day. A boy who rides the same bus is very poor, dresses shabbily, and often smells. The kids make fun of him. The little girl is repulsed by his appearance, but decides to sit with him and act friendly even though she knows this is dishonest, not how she feels. Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, 2008, p. 110

Ethical conundrum 6 A mayor of a large city receives gifts from organizations that have not done business with the city but might in the future. Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, 2008, p. 126

Ethics conundrum 7 You’re a middle manager and your supervisor asks you to provide confidential information about a colleague in the office who is being considered for promotion. The colleague is your close personal friend, but is not qualified for the job. Terry L. Cooper, The Responsible Administrator, 1998, p. 22

Ethics conundrum 8 It is brought to your attention as a manager that someone in the office took a sick day to attend the funeral of an uncle-in-law. Your leave policy does not provide paid leave covering this relationship. A co-worker discovers that the person is being paid for an unauthorized personal leave day and comes to you as the supervisor. What action should be taken? Should you encourage or discourage this type of whistleblowing? Is this a genuine ethical dilemma? James Bowman and Donald Menzel, Teaching Ethics and Values in Public Administration Programs, 1998, p. 29

Ethics conundrum 9 Employees’ worth to their employers may diminish before they are eligible for retirement. They may lack the skills necessary to implement required technological change. Or the same technology may simply allow the organization to function with fewer employees. Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, 2008, p. 172

Ethics conundrum 10 Your spouse works for a contractor that provides support services to your office. You don’t deal with each other professionally and there’s no chance of a conflict of interests under normal circumstances. You learn through the grapevine that the contract may be cut. Because the business employing your spouse is small, it will have to lay off many people. Your family depends on both your incomes. You know the contractor is unaware of all this and if he found out it could erode performance, so the information is considered sensitive and confidential in our office. Do you tell your spouse in time for her or him to plan for being laid off? If you don’t, how will your silence affect your marriage? Terry L. Cooper, The Responsible Administrator, 1998, pp. 4-5

Why do we need ethics if we have laws? Because law is not possible without ethics. The only way for a law to be enacted or repealed is for one or more people to make a decision about right and wrong. That has always been true, whether the lawmaker was the chieftain of a nomadic band or tribe , a king or queen, or a group of elected officials. Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, 2008, p. 5

What you would avoid suffering yourself, seek not to impose on others. Epictetus • Love your neighbor as yourself. Judaism • Do to others what you would want them to do to you. Christianity • Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Buddhism • Choose thou for thy neighbor that which thou choosest for thyself. Baha’i • What you do not want others to do to you, do not to others. Confucianism • One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. Hinduism • No man is a true believer unless he desireth for his brother that which he desires for himself. Islam • Whatever is disagreeable to yourself do not unto others. Zoroastrianism

Ethical resources permeate every sector of American society. The nation drips with sources of ethical guidance; ethics discourse, ethics rules, ethics laws. Ethics teachers, ethics advisors, ethics consultants. Ethics lectures, ethics institutes, ethics books, ethics journals, ethics Web sites. Ethics on television, ethics on the radio. Ethics is a stated priority of schools, universities, professional associations, business and government. Anita L. Allen The New Ethics, 2004, p. xxiv

Exaggerated fears of precipitous moral decline have dogged earlier generations, and they dog ours, too. We have some real problems, but we are not clearly worse off than our great-grandparents were. Elliot Turiel, The Culture of Morality: Social Development, Context, and Conflict, 2002, as summarized in Allen, The New Ethics, 2004

Florida Clerks of Court and Comptrollers