DP1

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

DP1

Should Engineer Doe accept the private consulting commission to prepare subdivision plans when he simultaneously holds the roles of county engineer and planning board member, knowing that the plans will foreseeably be submitted for his own recommendation and vote?

Engineer Doe simultaneously holds two public governmental roles — county engineer (with authority to recommend subdivision plans to the planning board) and planning board member (with authority to vote on those same plans) — while also maintaining an active private consulting practice. A subdivision developer approaches Doe and offers him a private commission to prepare subdivision plans that will foreseeably be submitted through the exact governmental channels Doe controls. At this foundational moment, before any plans are drawn or submitted, Doe must decide whether to accept the private commission.

Refuse the subdivision developer's offer to prepare the plans, recognizing that accepting it while holding both public roles creates an irreconcilable structural conflict of interest in which self-approval is a foreseeable and inescapable outcome — thereby preserving the integrity of both public roles.

Withdraw from the county engineer position, the planning board membership, or both before accepting the private commission, thereby eliminating the structural conflict at its source and ensuring that no self-approval pathway exists when the plans are submitted.

Accept the developer's commission and proceed to prepare the subdivision plans while continuing to serve as county engineer and planning board member, relying on anticipated disclosure to cure the resulting conflicts — the path Engineer Doe actually took, which created the triple-role self-approval structure.

County Engineer and Planning Board Member in Private Practice