When I was at King County, I faced three different “ethics questions” during my tenure — that I can recall.
We had an annual “read and review” of the ethics protocol for our ethical behaviors. Here’s my three memories:
1) Accepting a consultant’s offer to buy me a donut and a cup of coffee. He was not under contract to my office and would likely never be under contract — but, being a purist, I declined — and I really, really like donuts!
2) The media company that I did have a contract with for pushing out public education messages offered me to be their guest and bring a guest for box seats at a Seattle Mariner’s baseball game — right behind home plate, row two or three. That was a no-brainer. Could not accept that offer.
3) A major utility in our area had a luxury suite, again at a Mariner’s Game, and the business continuity professionals at the company sponsored an event to have local and regional government emergency managers join them for one game. While I knew the people and interacted with them on occasion, there was no direct “business relationship” between my office and the utility. For this one I went to the ethics office and asked the question about the propriety of me attending. The answer, unfortunately, was that the appearance of it would not be good, it would look inappropriate. So, I was the lone emergency manager who declined to attend.
Now, about those annual luxury trips for a Supreme Court justice, costing up to $500,000 for one trip. Hmm, lucky for that justice that they don’t have an ethics office at the Supreme Court. Shall we say, it was more than a donut and a cup of coffee!
