DP4

DecisionPoint
http://proethica.org/ontology/cases#DecisionPoint

DP4

Once the consulting firm is retained for capital project design, may the municipal engineer continue to perform statutory advisory duties — including cost estimate review, site plan review, and general engineering advice — with respect to that same project?

The municipality has decided to retain the municipal engineer's consulting firm for capital improvement project design work. The question now is whether the municipal engineer may continue to perform the statutory advisory duties — attending public body meetings, providing general engineering advice, reviewing site plans, preparing cost estimates — with respect to the very project that the firm has been retained to design. This creates a self-review situation in which the engineer's advisory role and design role converge on the same project, potentially requiring the engineer to evaluate the quality, cost, and adequacy of the firm's own work.

For the specific capital project on which the firm has been retained as design engineer, suspend all municipal engineer advisory functions that would require evaluating, reviewing, or opining on the firm's own work product — including cost estimate review, design adequacy assessment, and contractor selection advice — for the duration of the design engagement, and formally notify the municipality that it must obtain independent advisory services for those functions on this project.

Continue performing statutory advisory duties on the project but implement a formal structural separation protocol: designate a different principal within the firm (or an independent sub-consultant) to perform the design work, ensure that the municipal engineer principal has no supervisory or financial review role over the design team's work product, and document the separation so that the municipality can verify that the advisory and design functions are genuinely independent within the firm.

Perform both the statutory municipal engineer advisory duties and the capital project design services through the same firm and under the same principal's direction, relying on the municipality's informed consent to the dual-role arrangement and the engineer's professional integrity as sufficient safeguards — a course that maximizes service continuity and efficiency but eliminates the structural independence between advisory and design functions that the self-review prohibition requires.

Consulting Firm Principal (Designated Municipal Engineer)