Two interesting ethics situations
Dr. Kardasz -
Read the following report and consider:
1. Which typology of unethical behavior was exhibited by the accused?
2. Which decision making process might have prevented the accused from making the wrong decision?
Typologies of unethical behavior - http://kardasz.org/CorruptionTypologies.html
Decision making processes - http://kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html
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Dr. Kardasz: Should a salaried employee be permitted to "phone it in" and not be at the workplace? Read the following story and decide.
Hearing suggests new police practices
Friday, June 02, 2006, By Michael Perlstein, Staff writer
The payroll fraud case against New Orleans Police Capt. Harry Mendoza goes far beyond the now well-known allegations that he spent working hours on the tennis court, the Police Department revealed Thursday. The investigation of the 30-year veteran captured Mendoza -- on video and other forms of surveillance -- working out in a gym, hanging out in restaurants and spending considerable time in Jefferson Parish, all on police time, Assistant Chief Marlon Defillo said at a Civil Service hearing.
But Mendoza and his attorney, Eric Hessler, said that whatever was discovered during the two-week surveillance doesn't matter because he isn't an hourly employee and, as such, isn't tethered to a time clock.
"Captains are not considered hourly wage workers. Whether they work five hours a week or 90 hours, they get the same pay. Their pay is based on performance, and Capt. Mendoza's performance has been exemplary," Hessler said.
While much of Thursday's hearing was spent hashing out technical issues, the underpinnings of the case revealed a lot about the emerging disciplinary policy of Superintendent Warren Riley, whose emergency promotion just three weeks after Hurricane Katrina now looks permanent with Mayor Ray Nagin's re-election.
In his announced effort to instill a higher level of professionalism to the police force, Riley appears to be cracking down on some of the unwritten, but long-standing, practices within the department, including the wide latitude granted to supervisors in how they command their units.
The Mendoza case is being viewed by many officers, who have privately commented about it, as a litmus test. Mendoza and his supporters point to his strong and lengthy track record as a supervisor, including a stint as commander of the elite Special Operations Division.
But Riley and others seem determined to change the culture of NOPD from a New Orleans-style laissez-faire approach to a more rigid chain of command practiced by other big-city police departments.
"It's about accountability," said Defillo, commander of the Public Integrity Bureau. "It's one thing to go to the dry cleaners or meet your wife for lunch, but this was out of hand. There is a limit."
Mendoza, formerly the commander of the traffic division, has been reassigned to the carpentry shop as the Public Integrity Bureau wraps up its investigation. Hessler and the city attorney's office agreed Thursday to allow PIB an additional 60 days to complete the probe, which was about to exhaust its original 60-day time limit.
Hessler agreed to the extension when Defillo indicated that his investigators needed more time to review Mendoza's side of story. Mendoza said he has cell phone records and other forms of documentation showing he was in constant communication with his squad, regardless of where he was or what he was doing.
"It's a 24-hour job," Mendoza said. "We always fulfilled all of our assignments, from providing escorts during presidential visits to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition march. Sometimes with almost no notice."
Hessler argued that captains don't have time sheets and aren't paid overtime. Instead, they are accountable to their ranking commanders based on their job performance. He said their is nothing in Civil Service or departmental rules that forces captains to maintain specific hours.
Despite those arguments, Defillo said he expects the Police Department to eventually bring formal disciplinary charges against Mendoza.
"We think we have a strong case," he said. "We think we can show that the public was not getting the service they deserved and paid for."
Defillo denied widespread rumors that the investigation was motivated by politics based on Mendoza's decades-long friendship with Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, whom Nagin beat in the mayoral runoff.
"The complaint came from an anonymous letter," Defillo said. "We're working another case right now (against a different officer) based on an anonymous letter from within the department. Hey, if people bring complaints to our attention, we're going to check them out."
Michael Perlstein can be reached at mperlstein@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3316.
Retrieved June 2, 2006 from http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-15/114925634845000.xml
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Kardasz: Should an employee be permitted to use sick time even when he or she is not sick? Read the following story and decide.
‘MASTER MANIPULATOR’: Brockton cop’s double-dipping led to record Plymouth County pension
Brockton Police Lt. Charles Lincoln works a paid police detail.
MAUREEN BOYLE, SouthofBoston.com
A former official in the Plymouth County sheriff’s department - who doubled as a Brockton police lieutenant to qualify for a $140,000-a-year public pension - misused sick time to pull off ‘‘one of the most significant abuses’’ of taxpayer dollars ever, a scathing report by the state inspector general says.
The state should cut the pension of Charles Lincoln of Middleboro, and Plymouth County and Brockton officials should take steps to recoup $42,000 in sick-day and vacation-day pay outs, Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan said in a nine-page report released yesterday.
‘‘In summary, Charles Bradshaw Lincoln was a master manipulator,’’ the report stated. ‘‘He abused many aspects of each involved system for his personal gain at the ultimate expense of the taxpayers of the City of Brockton and Plymouth County.’’
Lincoln worked as a police lieutenant at night and as director of security for the Plymouth County sheriff’s office by day under Sheriff Joseph McDonough to earn the largest public pension in county history. Sheriff McDonough was defeated in the 2003 election.
Lincoln, who retired from both jobs in 2004, called in sick 148 times to his night job on the Brockton force - then wound up working the same day as director of security at the Plymouth County sheriff’s office, the inspector general’s report said.
Lincoln called in sick to the Plymouth job seven times and reported to work that same day in Brockton, the report found.
‘‘Lincoln’s use of sick leave during his dual employment in Plymouth county and Brockton is both shocking and alarming,’’ the report found.
Attempts to reach Lincoln for comment were unsuccessful.
The report spurred Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald to call on the state attorney general to see if any laws have been broken in the case.
‘‘This thing would stink at a skunk convention,’’ McDonald said.
Brockton Mayor James Harrington said he will look at what the city needs to do to recoup any sick-time money in the case and pledged to crack down on sick-time abuse in the future by any public workers.
‘‘Sick time is if you are sick,’’ he said. ‘‘This won’t happen again on my watch.’’
Former sheriff McDonough, who hired Lincoln after Lincoln spearheaded the campaign that ended with his election as sheriff, defended Lincoln’s work.
‘‘He showed up, he worked and he was an excellent employee,’’ McDonough said.
In addition to pointing out sick-time problems, the inspector general recommended that the Public Employment Retirement Administration Commission, or PERAC, recalculate and cut Lincoln’s pension by subtracting the amount of ‘‘fraudulently used sick days’’ from his salary at the time.
Joseph E. Connarton, executive director of PERAC, said the commission will review the report and ask the local retirement boards - who calculate the pensions - to examine the recommendation.
Paul Studenski, who was Brockton police chief at the time, said the department investigated allegations of sick-time abuse and had given Lincoln both verbal and written reprimands.
But the department was told by the city’s attorney there was nothing they could do to stop Lincoln from working two jobs, he said.
‘‘The solicitor told me we did not have a rule to stop it,’’ Studenski said.
McDonough said he wasn’t aware Lincoln was calling in sick at Brockton police and then coming into work at the sheriff’s office.
But the inspector general, in the report, said McDonough, as a former county commissioner who also served on the retirement board, should have been aware of all of the pension intricacies of the case but ignored them.
‘‘Sheriff McDonough apparently decided to reward Lincoln for his campaign assistance at the expense of the taxpayers of the city and the county,’’ the report found.
The inspector general’s report also found that Lincoln was given 69 vacation days during his three years at the Plymouth County sheriff’s office - as opposed to the 30 new employees would have received.
The report found that an assistant in the county administrator’s office approved the extra days without higher approval, costing taxpayers about $11,000.
‘‘Lincoln’s ability to achieve this result was only possible with the complicity of other public officials,’’ the report found.
Excerpts from the report of the inspector general on Charles Lincoln’s pension
... ‘‘It is the opinion of the Inspector General that the Lincoln pension and employment situation involves one of the most significant abuses in the expenditure of public funds and abuse of employment benefits in the history of the Commonwealth.’’
... ‘‘His ability to leave public service with a pension of almost $140,000 annually and $11,648.99 per month for the rest of his life amounts to an amazing and astonishing manipulation of the current pension system ... The taxpayers of Plymouth County should likewise find the Lincoln pension situation to be incredibly offensive.’’
... ‘‘Given his long term position on the Plymouth County Retirement Board, his other substantial elected and appointed positions with the County, and his admission that he know that Lincoln’s pension would be large due to combining salaries from two jobs, (Former Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph) McDonough’s claims that he never considered the impact that Lincoln’s pension would have on the County retirement system rings hollow.’’
... ‘‘Lincoln’s use of sick leave during his dual employment in Plymouth County and Brockton’s is both shocking and alarming ... Lincoln clearly placed his own personal interests above those of the public that he purported to serve.’’
... ‘‘Police officers must be held to a high standard with respect to honesty and integrity. It is our opinion that Charles Bradshaw Lincoln’s conduct falls far short of that mark.
... In summary, Charles Bradshaw Lincoln was a master manipulator. He abused many aspects of each involved system for his personal gain at the ultimate expense of the taxpayers of the City of Brockton and Plymouth County.
... ‘‘Sheriff McDonough breached his fiduciary duty to place the personal interests of Charles Bradshaw Lincoln above the interests of Plymouth County taxpayers...Sheriff McDonough apparently decided to reward Lincoln for his [2000] campaign assistance at the expense of the taxpayers of the City and the County.’’
Copyright 2006 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Friday, June 02, 2006
Retrieved June 6, 2006 from http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2006/06/02/news/news02.txt