Ethics in Elected Office, Case Study Example

Ethics in elected office relies on duty-based reasoning and serving the public. Which means that an elected official must be accountable to their organization and the public. Elected officials must promote ethics, and must approach problems with informed ethical reasoning (Svara, 2014, p. 18).

In this particular case, Governor Susan Fornay is worried that her re-election campaign might be compromised by a recent, minor scandal involving six highway department employees who three years prior were charged for making fraudulent claims resulting in $5500 of public funds used illegally to obtain personal travel. The employees were then re-hired once they paid restitution and had their records expunged. Technically, under the law, this is perfectly legal and the director of the department Wayland Johnson had re-hired the six employees under the advice of legal counsel. Johnson assumed that since nothing illegal had taken place, the employees were efficient, competent and had experience to warrant giving them their jobs back at a higher salary. Johnson says that the employees have learned their lessons.

Speaking as Governor Fornay, her foremost duty is to protect and serve the public by following ethical and value-based reasoning (Svara, 2014, pp. 33-44). The employees showed a lack of ethical decision making, no matter if what they did was ultimately illegal or not. It should also be considered that the State Merit System has rules prohibiting the re-hiring of employees who are involved and convicted of of a crime involving moral turpitude. Just because the crime was eventually expunged, does not mean that the ethical lapse in judgment never happened. Governor Fornay is in an elected position, which means the public trusts her and relies on her to make ethical decisions, and in cases of fraud and using public funds for personal gain, it is obvious that  allowing these employees to continue employment would show a complete lack of integrity and public duty (Svara, 2014, pp. 44-46).

References

Svara, J. H. (2014). The ethics primer for public administrators in government and nonprofit organizations. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.