Politics & Public Administration

200 words each with 1 reference

Part I. Reread the memo about fair housing – see attached memo

Explain how you serve the council even though their ideas might differ from the public good. Can you argue that serving the council’s decision is serving the public good?

Part II.  If you were the city manager in the situation from the first DQ. Would you implement the policy? Explain why. Discuss the challenges that might occur if someone did choose to implement the policy. 

COUNCIL DECISION REQUEST

(CDR)

MEETING DATE
: 10/29/2015

SUBJECT:
Conditional Use Permit for Residential Care Facilities

DEPARTMENT/PRESENTER
: Town Manager, Evelyn Racette
RESOLUTION ☐ ORDINANCE ☐ PUBLIC HEARING ☐ OTHER ☒

BACKGROUND SUMMARY: Residents from the Woodland Hills and Pineview Estates Subdivisions approached the Town about a Residential Care Facility that would be locating in Pineview Estates.
The Fair Housing Act applies to Residential Care Facilities. This means that individuals in this country have the right to choose where they live and prohibits housing discrimination based on color, national origin, religion, gender, substance abusers and the mentally ill; provided certain permitted restrictions are met.

DISCUSSION:
Neighbors in this area have expressed concerns regarding the location of the facility; however, the Town cannot consider the feelings of neighbors in making a decision about granting a permit to a residential care facility that serves six or fewer persons. In the same way a local government would break the law if it rejected low-income housing in a community because of neighbors’ fears that such housing would be occupied by racial minorities, a local government can violate the Fair Housing Act if it blocks a group home or denies a requested reasonable accommodation in response to neighbors’ stereotypical fears or prejudices about persons with disabilities. This is so even if the individual government decision-makers are not themselves personally prejudiced against persons with disabilities. If the evidence shows that the decision-makers were responding to the wishes of their constituents, and that the constituents were motivated in substantial part by discriminatory concerns that could be enough to prove a violation. Moreover, there is a specific Arizona statute (A.R.S. § 36-582, attached) that requires a city or town to treat such facilities as a permitted residential use. This statue does allow a city or town to enforce its other zoning and building code provisions.
However, the Town may have a provision in the Code to meet all requirements of a Conditional Use Permit. This allows the Town to require conditions such as licenses, certificates, permits or registrations. If these cannot be produced, or if other conditions are not met, the Town is able to revoke the Permit.

RECOMMENDATION: Staff Recommends approving the proposed language changes with the clear understanding that the Fair Housing Laws still apply in these situations.

SUBMITTED BY
:
__________________________________

TOWN MANAGER REVIEW AND SIGNATURE
:
_____________________________________________

PATiMES.ORG PATIMES PAGE 7
VOLUME 36, NUMBER 2 PUBLIC SERVICE: PUBLIC GOOD APRIL/MAY/JUNE 2013

NOTES FROM THE FIELD
The Role of Ethical Public Service in Promoting the Public Good
ByJosephG. Jarretf

DURING THE COURSE ofthe last two decades,
I have served several state and local public
entities as both a manager and attorney. I
have consistently attempted to iritulcate
in my clients, colleagues and employees
the value of a code of ethics or conduct
that goes beyond the basic tenets of “don’t
lie, cheat or steal.” Clearly, my goal is one
shared by a multitude of professional public
administrators aroimd the globe. Still, it
is one that must remain in the forefront of
the minds of our elected and appointed
counterparts if the public good is ever going
to become the beneficiary of professional
and ethical public service.

The Queensland, Australia Government
(Queensland) suggests that “A code of ”
conduct plays a key role in demonstrating
the government’s commitment to
the highest levels of integrity and
accountability, whether you work in

. a state government department, local
councu, government-owned corporation
or university.” In passing the Queensland
Public Sector Ethics Act (PSEA), the
government called upon its employees
to “maintain integrity and impartiality,
promote the public good, commit to
the system of government and honor
accountability and transparency.”

In 2006, the State of Tennessee passed
the “Comprehensive Governmental
Ethics Reform Act (The Act). The Act
served to strengthen Tennessee’s ethics ‘
laws by creating a new Tennessee Ethics
Commission. The Act required all counties,
municipalities and boards of education to
adopt an ethics code of their choosing, or
a model code promulgated by the County
and Municipal Technical Advisory Services.
What do Queensland Australia and
Tennessee have in common? Both entities
recognized the fact that the public good
can only be promoted by a “good” public •
service. That the terms “open government,”
“transparency,” “open records” and
participative government must be more
than catch phrases if the public is ever going
to benefit from the toils of its professional
public administrators.

Dame Suzi Leather, Chair of Britain’s
Charity Commissions suggests that “All
charitable organizations which advance
a particular moral or belief system should
dêïine that belief system in their objects
with a sufficient degree of clarity and
certainty and must be able to show that
it is, and will be; advanced for the public
benefit.” So too must public entities
convince the general public by the practical
and consistent application of their ethics
policies that said policies are advanced for
the public good.

As pointed out by Nadler (2012) “High
ethical standards are especially important

• in the public sector because they are key to
credibility and lead to increased support for
government agencies and political leaders.”
Once an entity publishes or touts an ethics
policy designed to ensure the actions of
government adhere to the public good, how
do words morph into action? Queensland
suggests that public administrators should:

a. Accept and value their duty to be
responsive to both the requirements of
government and to the public interest.

b. Accept and value their duty to
engage the community in developing .
and effecting official public sector
priorities, policies and decisions.

c. Accept and value their duty to mapage
public resources effectively, efficiently
and economically.

d. Value and seek to achieve excellence in
service delivery.

e. Value and seek to achieve enhanced
integration of services to better service
clfents.

Douglas J. Amy, professor of Politics at
Mount Holyoke College observes that
good government can be the source of
much public good. He suggests that “the
institutions that do the most ‘good works’
in our society are not churches or charities;
they are our local, state and federal
governments. These governments do an
enormous amount to feed the hungry, heal
the sick, take care ofthe old, protect the

young and so on. In fact, the good created by
these governments far exceeds, all the good
accomplished by churches and charities
in our society.” Despite the fact that most
citizens will agree, even grudgingly, that
government does serve the public good,
Frank Benest, city manager, of Brea, AC,
observed, “Citizens have lost confidence in
all institutions, including local government.
In the past, people had less confidence in
federal and state government but trusted
local government because it was ‘closer to
the people.’ Disenchantment with all major
institutions, particularly government,
now affects local government as well.” An
interesting assumption, considering the
fact that the adoption of ethics policies at

in less than cordial fashion? It is real life •*
scenarios such as the aforementioned that
continue to vex the most ethical of public
servants. Perhaps the answer lies in Benset’s
suggestions that public servants should:
• Inform themselves on key issues

confronting their communities.

• Participate in civic improvement
groups.

• Struggle to find common ground with
others, as well as advocate their private
interests. N.

• Become responsible for their local
governments and their communities.

In the end, it is only through the efforts of
good public servants that the needs ofthe

the terms “open government,” “transparency,” “open records”
and parlicipative government must be more than catch
phrases if the public is ever going to benefit from the toils of
its professional public administrators.

the locid government level has become the
norm. Why then, would an experienced
city manager make such a statement?
Perhaps it’s because elected and appointed
officials still struggle with those ethical
conundrums in the form of grey areas that,
although are not enumerated in one’s ethics
policy, nevertheless don’t seem to pass the
proverbial smell test.

It’s simple to advise a public employee
not to lie, cheat or steal. It’s quite another
to tick off a comprehensive list of do’s and
don’ts that should bé the rule and guide
their public sector service. Although it may
not be illegal or a violation of one’s ethics
policy for an elected official to have lunch
with a developer who may soon appear
before the board for a change in zoning, at
what point does the relationship between
the two precipitate into a conflict of
interest? Is it unethical for an elected body
politic to be deferential to a well-heeled
cornmunity leader who appears before it yet
treat an aggrieved citizen of lesser means

public good can be fulfilled. If ever there
was a variable that can be manipulated, it
is the variable of public servants exercising
good, ethical and honorable service on
behalf of the people they serve.

Joseph G. Jarret is a public sector manager ,attorney and
mediator who lectures on behalf of the Master of Public Policy
and Administration program in the Department of Poiitical
Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxviile. He is the
2013 president of the E. Tennessee Chapter of ASPA.

Copyright of PA Times is the property of American Society for Public Administration and its content may not

be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written

permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.