Professional Planning Ethics

Presented by Brad Collins FAICP1.5 Certification Maintenance Credits

September 25, 2015

Basics

• AICP Code of Ethics (new format in 2005)• Professional Conduct (also new format)• Why is anyone a member of AICP?• What do you do when facing difficult issues?• When do you turn to the Code of Ethics?• How much ethical behavior is enough?• Procedural answers to above questions

Shall Strive For

• Aspirational Principles• Responsibility to Whom – Public (Interest),

Clients & Employers, and Profession & Colleagues

• Primary Obligation To Serve Public Interest• A Noted “Unless” – Illegal or Plainly

Inconsistent with Primary Obligation

Shall Not – Compliance Enforced

• Deliberately or with reckless indifference• “Unless” full written disclosure and written

permission/consent from client or employer• Other employment – whether or not for pay• Employment as a professional as a duty• Conflicts in publicly advocated positions and with

the work of other professionals• Misrepresentation & work beyond competence

Ethics Session Toolkit

• Facilitated Discussion• Panel or Audience• Questions or Scenarios• Basic or Beyond Basic

Questions About Ethics• What are the most common ethical issues?• What do you do when ethics are violated?• Are illegal and unethical the same?• What do you do when politics enters into a planning decision?• Do the Appearance of Fairness and Conflict of Interest laws provide ethical guidance?• Can a planner develop property?

Private & Public Planning Scenarios

• Carol Barrett’s Book – permission to use for professional training purposes

• Difference professional perspectives, experiences, and clients/employers

• Often driven by personal experiences which can be misleading in regards to ethical issues

• Remember primary obligation to serve public interest(s)

Private Planning Scenario

• You are a journeyman planner with expertise in site planning and circulation standards.

• During a final site visit to verify the physical site characteristics, particularly topographical constraints, you see an endangered species.

• This observation creates a series of ethical concerns to professional planners.

• Stand up for what you believe is most ethical.

Public Planning Scenario

• You are a City Planning Director involved in a controversial public hearing.

• In a last minute turn of events, you are put in an impossible position with no easy solutions.

• Faced with a series of ethical problems, what can you do?

• The right solution requires an experienced view of the planning process.

Facilitated Discussion

• Audience of Professional Planners• Ethics = Trust• Recognize an ethical issue, make an ethical

judgment, engage in ethical behavior• Ethical uncertainty (willful ignorance)• Ethical dilemma (equal pros and cons)• Ethical distress (institutionally blocked despite

knowing the moral principle)

Making an Ethical Judgment

• Good versus Bad• Right versus Wrong• Fair versus Unfair• Praise versus Blame

Rational Based Theories

• Universalism – right or wrong independent of consequences

• Utilitarism – greatest good for greatest number of people

• Justice – giving each person their due, treating equals as equals and unequals unequally

Compassion for OthersSelflessness Theories

• Ethics of Care – ethical worth of relationships characterized by caring

• Libertarism – maximize capacity for free, informed personal choice

Character of Morality Theories

• Virtue - achieving our personal ethical ideal (who we are not what we do)

• Land Ethic – right if it is in harmony with nature

Engage in Ethical Behavior

• Choose a few offered ethical issues• Examine the facts of an ethical issue• Identify and select ethical behaviors• Model of Ethical Decision-making• Craig Dunn, Dean, College of Business and

Economic, Western Washington University