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Show Cit 1Zens East Edition Salt LakeCity, Utah Legal ornot, politicians’ acts should be ethical Foranypersonin a public Office, whether appointed normative. strate motivated. EE: spontaneous < heart,” given wit orelected, accepting from the expectation of anything in return. Normative gifts are expected gifts that pre- considered unethical, and removalfrom office are given for strategic edness. hoursstatutorily defining ethical standards for elected and appointed public makes theethical question more complex than necessary, and laws merelyresult in legislative and For the past nine years I have taught a class at University of judicial expense to the public Phoenix dealing with critical is- Instead of passing morelaws perhaps a “Code of Ethical Con duct” should be written by and for public employees, a codethey could endorse and enforce. Most managers Through analysis ofa series of incidents, the students discuss how they would handle decisions whichhave no company policy or precedent. One scenario deals with a pub- members by muchof society ing the highest offices in the Unit- While studying history, I learned we have governments — tionable conduct dealing with money and honesty employees — because the to these inci. more ic question, “Is it ethieal?” The assumptien-appears to be “if it's legal, it’s ethical.” Re- member, ethical and legal questions are not synonymous. Many actions determined legal by the courts are considered unethical and elected and appointed public founders of our nation saw some needs that were better handled group wouldreceiv a stipend for their efforts, and group members would pay a tax to provide money for the service. This simplistic view of government remindsus of whywe haveelected and appoint collectively. These efforts result- ed public employees. The question then is, selected to.carry out the group's plan ‘amples: Military protec- would any memberofthis group want to pay more than required for the service rendered? The ed in membersof the groupbeing tion, infrastructure construction and maintenance, law enforcement.) The citizens agreed that persons selected to work for the “Why assumption made is that they are receiving some concealedservice Whether they areor not is irre vant — it appears theyare. To tioned, the question of taking gifts always turns to whether pub- lic employees should live by a stricter code than those inprivate business. Every groupof students receiving discussing this question concludes, “public officials should services other than those for which the groupexists live by a higher law.” divisiveness puts the group in jeopardy of being destroyed. (Political contributions ai sepa- propriety should be avoided in publie office. Further, students ssue, not discussed here). Kathleen Reardon's book Gift G ving Around the Worldis a discussionofcultural differences in gift ving. Reardon identifies interfere with their ability to serve. By John Rush Murray Is politics war? You be thejudge. Weelect officials to represent our interests in concert with and balanced against the needs of the broader community. They mustbe allowed to do our workbut, increasingly, they also end up fighting to defend their political actions. protect their personalinterests, maintain their reputa- tion and save their soul in the process! Oftentimes right? Doesthis intense lev- Ac- maintain groupcohesiveness, every act of the public employee must be above suspicion. If it ap- pears some group members are privatelives that gift not specifically authorized by Intheclasses previously men- elected officials and other public subjected to intrusive probes of their their very existence is at stake. the group for whichI work.” Each week | shouldn't be employees the first ceptance of gifts would violate this principle andthose who do so must allow another member of the group to take their place as group service provider. there are questions raised, locally and nationally, about honesty and alleged violations of law by our We tend to react public principle must be, “I will accept no compensation or any kind of cepted gifts Two similar scenarios have been revealed in Salt Lake City during the past fewweeks. In both instances a public employeeir a decision-making position has accepted moneyas a personal gift or dents by askingif a law has been broken. Why do we overlook the and In a “Code of Ethical Conduct for the Highway Patrol havealso ac- edStates are all accused of ques- professional internally by peers, and the un ethical are ededout acceptance of gifts. He is reinstated when his attorney establishes that his boss and the director of employees. The three men hold- of business organizations live by suchcodes. Discipline is handled lic employee suspendedfollowing consulting fee.’ reasons. Ulterior-motivated gifts are self-explanatory Our legislative bodies spend Salt Lake City today’s Public servants vent hurt feelings. Strategiegifts andthey usually establish indebt- shouldbe thepunishment for those whodo, By Robert Warnick facing Give Deedee abreak ic and ulteriorgifts are expensive gifts and money should be sues Wednesday, February 19, 1997 They agree that even the appearanceof im- agree that concernabout theac- tions of our public employees should focus on unethical acts Thestandard of right and wrong should be high whendealing with four major gift types: Expressive Is this good, necessary or el of public scrutinyserve to keep our elected officials more honest than would otherwise be the case, or is it destructive, mean-spirited and hateful? Really, does it serve any productive purpose or add value to the business of governing and the service delivered to the taxpaying public? In truth, it is ultimately damaging to the democratic process and the individual, andit undermines the workings of the government. Thevoterswill ultimately decide the answer to ques- tions like these. Now whether what Mayor Dee- dee Corradinidid (in accept- ing gifts of money from See DEEDEE on Page 2 See ETHICAL on Page 2 Punishmentshouldfit the crime — don’t revokerights for misdemeanors In somesituations,it does more harm than good to take the right ofgun ownership away Jrom a person who has been convicted ofthe crime of domestic violence, espcially have fallenvictim to heinous er mitted by one of their own fan bers. A closer examinat should show howgross! law is and howit fails to ac crimes committed withfire arms, Let’s start by taking a look at brought it about. Our founding fathers were the first to espousethis theory with the ratification the Bill of Rights. In this grand document arethefifth amendment, which prohibits the takingof life, liberty or property without duepro: cess, and the eighth amendment, which states that bails, fines, and punishments must not be excessive, With these amend. ments, the founding fathers werestriking a blowfor justice. For too long the slight est infraction against the Crown had re sultedin the cry, “off with their heads! Today, there are onceagain those who wouldusedraconian punishments against people who have committed only misdemeanor crimes. They do it under the guise of protecting the innocent victims of domestic violence, but some wonder if the problem of dom Let's take a look at the second case Curtis — or C-Dog to his ass« lates — has juvenile criminal record an extensive He’s beeninvolved in auto thefts, strong: arm robberies, assaults and various drug and alcohol offenses At 19, C-Do, leader of a small gang. One pai night C-Dog and his associa venge on arival gang by shooti: vehicle A police investigation results in ( Dog's arrest. The county attorney whatever reason, chooses to file of discharg ng a firearm from a y and criminal mischief, both misdeme thetical cases. John and Mai bandand wife. Theirs is a roc ship and they often argue ors. C-Doguses a court appointed children or finances. One ev they are arguing Mary tells John sheis anda jurytrial finds himguilty. Rega less of his past criminal record or th ’-Dog is off probation he legally purchase and pos filing for divorce. John becomes extremely upset and in a rage, thre a living room lamp onto the floor, shattering it conviction, one can onceaga spond. John admits to the officers that he edinthese two hypothetical cases aren't Mary calls 9-1-1 and the police re didbreak the lamp and he’s issued a cita tion for criminal mischief /domestic vio. lence. John goes to court and, represent ing himself, pleads guilty. He might be sentenced to attend anger ma pment classes, pay restitution to Mary, pay court costs and fines and en be placed onpro bation to the court Now, however, with the passage of the federal law in question, Johnis also pro: hibited from ever owning or possessing a firearm. It doesn’t matter if John has no previous criminal record or if he their desire to implement their plansfor otherwise lawful gun owner who joyedtarg or huntingi the past. He might even be apolice officer I'm speaking about Congress’ passage who must carry a firearm to perform his duties, He cannot own a gun their motives aren't connected more with gun control They're not available in anystore, and can't be p able approach for protecting those who access guns legally. By Clayton D. Dumas sandy A basic tenet of the American criminal publishing your commentary in Citizens. violence to ever again possess a firearm ce, t > a reason- when other criminals can still justice system has always been that a punishment should fit the crime which residents. If your column isowes ary achievement. Madeof 100 percent logo on the back and the staif logo on the front,© a bill recentlythat makes it a felony for a personconvictedof a crime of domestic sess a firearm. The gross inequities in justice illustrat just the whimsical wr itings of this author Day after day they will become the norm in our criminal justice system if this ill thought-out and unjust federal meddling into the problem of domestic violence left standing This is not to say therearen't domestic violence offenders whose crimes don't warrant denying them acce ss to firearms However, the system is already in place restrict those convicted of more serious violence. including arson or other felo- crimes of domestic aggravated assault nious crimes, from poss sing gerou weapon, not just firez any dan We can't solve the problem of domestic See FIREARMS on Page 2 | |