JUS-202 Topic 1 Personal Values Worksheet
Instructions: Read each ethical dilemma faced by public servants listed below and then explain how you would resolve these dilemmas. Some of the philosophical tools of assessment used to evaluate ethical dilemmas include consequentialism, deontology and utilitarianism
Your answers should be 150-200 words for each response. Be sure to use the Class Resources, government Websites, and the GCU Library to locate at least three relevant, scholarly sources in support of your responses. Cite references below in the Reference section.
1) You are a needs assessment officer for a public housing authority. An elderly public housing resident has petitioned the housing authority to have an expensive oxygen tank apparatus installed in his public housing unit because of a severe pulmonary condition.
You personally believe that we should respect and care for the elderly, but you must balance that personal value against the responsibility to assess the true need and cost of installing such a device in the resident’s unit. How do you balance your personal value with that of the interest of the resident and the general public interest? Provide an example of an assessment tool to help you reach your conclusion.
2) You are a police officer working in a rural town. During a night patrol, you come into contact with a minor, 13, who is carrying a bottle of beer and appears to be mildly intoxicated.
According to your official duties as an officer, you should issue the minor a citation for breaking curfew and for minor in possession (of alcohol). However, your personal values concerning the matter call for leniency. You believe that for minors to grow into young adults, they must engage in some deviancy in order to explore and understand the borders between good and bad behavior. You would prefer to locate the parents or guardians of the minor and deliver the minor to them.
How do you balance your personal value with that of the interest of the minor, the parents/guardians, your duties as an officer and the general public interest? Provide an example of an assessment tool to help you reach your conclusion.
3) You are a clerk working for a local municipality, and you have been charged with the duty of annexing an unincorporated portion of land abutting the municipality into the city. The rationale to include the unincorporated land into the city is the residents of that area are receiving some social services of the city (such as fire and police service) without having to pay taxes.
While you believe it is important for citizens to pay their fair share of the tax burden, you also understand that some of these residents may have elected to live outside of the city specifically because they did not want to pay city taxes, regardless of whether they were being furnished with any city services. Further, you understand to incorporate that land into the city may drive some residents away due to the increase in tax costs.
How can you balance your personal values with your duties as a clerk for the municipality, your duties to the residents of the city, and tangential duties to the nonresidents of the city? Provide an example of an assessment tool to help you reach your conclusion.
4) You are an administrator of a state water authority charged with balancing the competing interests of water consumers. You are piecing together a 40-year water consumption plan that involves agricultural, municipal, industrial, and tribal interest groups.
The task of dividing the water amongst these competing stakeholders is difficult, given your divided personal values concerning their interests. For instance, you believe honoring the tribal treaty agreements concerning the water is important, given the historic circumstances of tribal/U.S. governmental relations. You also believe that supporting local commerce through agriculture and industry is incredibly important, as is supporting the general growth the municipal community.
How can you balance your personal values with your duties as an administrator for the water authority? Provide an example of an assessment tool to help you reach your conclusion.
References
