Planning Ethics Questionnaire

Response Scale

         4          3          2          1          0
         +----------+----------+----------+----------+
       ethical   probably   probably   unethical   undecided
                 ethical    unethical

1. Assisting, on your own time, a citizen's group to prepare a position counter to one taken by your employer.

2. Threatening a developer with costly delay in order to secure concessions you believe to be in the public interest.
3. Distorting information to facilitate acceptance of a development proposal you feel meets a public need.
4. Leaking information to the media on a matter you feel strongly about and on which you believe your employer or client is being unduly secretive.
5. Organizing support among community groups and lobbying for your planning proposal without your planning director's approval.
6. Accepting a loan from a developer with whom you employer or client regularly does business.
7. Writing a letter to the editor, signing only your name and home address, criticizing the city council for approving a development against the recommendation of the planning department, of which you are an employee.
8. Downplaying the value judgements in a forecast or analysis, thereby making it appear more objective than it really is.
9. Openly taking a position on an issue, within the planning department, which you know to be contrary to the declared position of your employer or client.
10. Submitting a report on a by-law that affects a property owned by a member of your family, without declaring a possible conflict of interest.
11. Not providing members of the public with the full range of information available to you as a planner working on a planning proposal.
12. Seeking to avoid responsibility for giving full consideration to the environmental impacts of a planning proposal or project.
13. Presenting an opinion that you know is the only one that your client/employer will find acceptable, even though it does not represent the view held by you as a professional.
14. Planning for the needs of disadvantaged groups, and working to alter policies and decisions which oppose such needs, whether this is part of your mandate or not.
15. Knowing that another planner is behaving unethically but not informing your superiors or the professional organization (AICP or APA).

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