CENTERVILLE -- Please select the correct answer.
City officers and employees can accept front-row Jazz tickets from appreciative developers if they are: (A) Doing a good job. (B) Sports minded. (C) Nuts.How about this one? The Utah Municipal Officers and Employees Ethics Act applies to: (A) The mayor's political supporters. (B) All city officers and employees. (C) The Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Games.
The correct answers to the previous two questions are C and B. Centerville council and planning commission members and senior city staff got these and most other questions right during an ethics class Tuesday evening even as they chuckled over some of the choices.
Working a little humor into his ethics quiz was City Attorney Mike Mazuran's way of making a somewhat dry topic go down a little easier. The ethics training is part of an ongoing program of legal education intended to keep city officials out of trouble and reduce the city's exposure to litigation.
Although the Centerville officials did well on the quiz, one question stumped a number of them.
It turns out that if you are a city employee and your uncle plans to bid on a city contract, you are not obligated to disclose the relationship to the city unless you are in a position to influence a decision in his favor or have a personal interest in the matter. Disclosure is automatically required only in the case of an immediate relative such as a spouse, child or parent.
So what about the planning commissioner whose mother applies to have her property rezoned? The commissioner should (A) Vote for low density commercial to keep things fair. (B) Talk on the phone with other commission members about their position on the matter. (C) Ask Mom if she has done her estate planning. (D) At a minimum, make a written disclosure of his/her relationship.
The correct answer is D.