DP2

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

DP2

If Engineer A were to proceed with the dual role, should Engineer A treat employer disclosure and a recusal commitment as sufficient ethical safeguards, or must Engineer A recognize that the structural conflict cannot be cured by procedural measures and decline the engagement regardless of employer non-objection?

Even assuming Engineer A were to proceed with the part-time engagement (which the Board finds impermissible), a secondary question arises regarding whether employer awareness and non-objection — combined with a recusal commitment — would be sufficient to cure the structural conflict, or whether the conflict is so pervasive that no procedural remedy can render the dual role ethical. This decision point captures the tension between the view that procedural compliance (disclosure, approval, recusal) satisfies the engineer's ethical obligations and the view that the structural conflict is substantive and non-curable through procedural means.

Recognize that employer disclosure and non-objection are necessary but not sufficient conditions for ethical permissibility, and decline the engagement on the independent ground that the structural conflict — shared municipal stakeholders, expanding recusal obligations, and informational advantage from FAA guideline dissemination — cannot be cured by procedural measures regardless of employer consent.

Proceed with the dual role after obtaining explicit State DOT approval and implementing a systematic recusal protocol, treating the employer's informed non-objection as the authoritative institutional judgment that the conflict is manageable and that the engineer's independent ethical obligation is thereby satisfied.

Accept the engagement with a narrowly scoped recusal protocol limited to municipalities where active airport consulting contracts exist (rather than mere solicitation), subject to periodic review by the State DOT ethics officer, on the theory that a targeted and supervised recusal regime adequately manages the conflict without requiring full declination.

Engineer A