The Ethics of Bias
by Greg Dale
Greg Dale on why its important for planning commissioners to be aware of the border between personal values and bias.
Read excerpts from article:
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As in most ethical considerations, there is great room for
judgment. You should be asking yourself whether your personal
values are such that you can fairly consider requests that come
before you -- or whether your personal values might cause you to
be prejudiced or emotional in your opinions.
Keep in mind that when considering applications or requests, you
are operating within a prescribed set of procedures and
standards, as set out in your state and local regulations. When
someone appears before you, the question is not whether or not
you "like" their proposal, but whether or not it complies with
the regulations.
It is important to note a distinction, however, between those
instances where you are establishing policy rather than
administering existing policy. For example, the commissioner who
doesn't believe in design review is certainly free to oppose the
inclusion of design review in the city's procedures, or to
initiate a change in procedures to remove design review.
However, once design review procedures are in place, the
commissioner should work within that system.
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