The Pinellas County administration has long enjoyed multiple regimes of administrative and political stability because of exceptional professionalism from public officials. None of its commissions has failed a bid for re-election since 1992. This situation follows that the county’s employees receive excellent treatment and enjoy lasting careers. Nonetheless, recent times have seen the officials engaged in a land scandal involving the appraiser, the county administrator, board of commissioners, and the Attorney (Menzel, 2009).
In the events following the scandal, the County Attorney was aware that her actions in the land case would appear biased against the County government. She knew that the dilemma did not point to wrongdoing. Rather, upon appropriate reflection, she sought to distance herself from the County to help her friend with the case by signing a conflict of interest waiver. In so doing, the attorney hoped to preserve her sense of impartiality and independence in the matter. The only last move would be to place integrity over and above her personal attachments to each of the involved parties (Menzel, 2009).
This Attorney has over twenty years’ worth of experience in Pinellas County as the official court representative. She has established a professional image of a confident, ethical, and integral individual. However, she finds herself in a dilemma when the Appraiser seeks help in settling the land case. Based on Marius (2013), this situation reveals itself as a dual representation involving a personal relationship between the appraiser, now a private citizen, and the Attorney, in her official duties as the County’s legal aid. She proceeds to seek a conflict-of-interest waiver to facilitate her role in the sale of the appraiser’s property to the County (Marius, 2013).
The ethical dilemma above represents a personal conflict of interest. According to Stark and Davis (2001), conflicts of interest are situations where an individual’s private concerns interfere with their performance of public duties. The attorney’s personal relationship with the appraiser has a perceived interference with her performance in the appraiser v County land case. As a county official, she should try to avoid such situations where she would be under the accusation that she allowed the appraiser to benefit from her decisions (Stark & Davis, 2001).
References
Marius, F. (2013). Conflict Of Interest And Integrity In Public Administration In Cee Countries. Comparative Analysis. Journal of Public Administration, Finance and Law, Iss 4, 55-67.
Menzel, D. (2009). Anything Unethical, Illegal or Immoral: A Case Study of Ethical Illiteracy in Local Governance. Public Integrity, 11 (4), 371-384.
Stark, A., & Davis, M. (2001). Conflict of Interest in the Professions. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
