The Ethics of Building a Legacy of Planning
by Larry Weil
The Ethics session was presented in three segments: Do the Right Thing: Make Good Choices by Dee Caputo, FAICP; Building Bridges through Building a Legacy by Mark Kulaas, FAICP; and, AICP Ethics Golden Rule: “Serve the Public Interest” by Ben Orsbon, FAICP.
Larry Weil presents in the Ethics of Building a Legacy of Planning session
Ethics is a concern for all planners whether or not they have AICP credentials. This is important at all levels of government activity and should be a principle at all levels of life. Professional planning ethics was developed by the American Institute of Certified Planners and serve as a guide during the planning process and implementation of planning policies. The purpose is to improve outcomes in planning, promote community buy-in, instill public confidence and trust that the planning process is fair and equitable, and provide a legal basis for decision making. The AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct serves three purposes:
Defines the aspirational principles for all of those that participate in the planning process
Defines the rules of practices and behavior to which all members of AICP are held accountable, and
Defines the procedures for enforcement of these rules.
The AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct guides and inspires ethical decision-making, while guiding AICP-certified planners when faced with controversial or difficult choices. The updated version in 2021 advances the following:
Improves alignment of rules
Clarifies types of employment
Discusses perceived conflicts of interest
Reduces the use of frivolous complaints by an aggrieved member of the public against an AICP member
Only an AICP member now can file an appeal of a determination by the Ethics officer related to a complaint of misconduct.
Aspirational principles for planners are the foundation for the profession’s shared values, as well as the basis for the Rules of Conduct. These principles are for every participant in the planning process including planners, advisory bodies and decision makers. There are five overarching aspirational principles:
Pursue and faithfully serve the public interest
Participate with integrity
Work to achieve economic, social and racial equality
Safeguard the public trust
Improve planning knowledge and public understanding of planning.
The principles support a culture of values versus individual responses to individual situations. Leaving a legacy is at the core of the AICP Principles to which we aspire. As a profession we strive to build a high-quality legacy for our communities, our clients, our employers, our profession and our colleagues.
Dee Caputo, FAICP presents in the Ethics of Building a Legacy of Planning session
The strength in the aspirational principles is that they support a culture of values versus individual responses to individual situations. Planners seek the best way to handle situations by knowing who we are and what we stand for. Integrity is a cultural value we seek to live by. With integrity, the focus is not on fear of being caught doing something wrong. It is how proud we are of how clearly people believe we are doing the right things and doing those things right. It is seen in promoting excellence in design; providing timely, adequate, clear and accurate information; seeking social justice; promoting the inherent rights of Indigenous People; being conscious of the rights of others; having special concern for long-range consequences; and giving special attention to interrelatedness of decisions.
Trust is not a gift, it is an earned benefit. An individual earns trust when people see a direct, positive connection between the values that matter to them and the things the individual does. It is important to make work relevant to solving community problems and increase the public’s understanding of planning activities. Planners should educate and seek to empower the public about planning issues and their relevance to everyone’s lives.
Learning something new makes us temporarily incompetent. We hate feeling stupid. We hate being stupid, even if only temporarily. Knowing something doesn’t make it easy to share. As planners we should seek to understand the audience and provide understanding. We are not our audience and should not assume the audience knows, cares about, or wants to learn what we already know. Understanding what is important to our audience allows us to transform our knowledge. Connecting requires us to know our audience. We should look to provide relevancy, be practical, relate life experiences and knowledge, and elicit participation.
Mark Kulaas, FAICP presents in the Ethics of Building a Legacy of Planning session
Repeating professional code words dilute the power of our message. Planners should provide timely, adequate, clear, accessible, and accurate information on planning issues to all participants. We should disclose to the public all personal and pecuniary interests and abstain from direct or indirect involvement in any matter in which there is a personal or pecuniary interest. It would be appropriate to leave any meeting in which such a matter is under deliberation. Planners should not offer or accept any gifts or favors. Integrity means to not only avoid a conflict of interest, but also avoid even an appearance or hint of a conflict of interest. We should not deliberately commit a wrongful act which reflects adversely on the planning process or profession. We should expose corruption wherever discovered. It should be common practice to examine the applicability of planning theories, methods, research, and standards to the facts and analysis of each particular situation. We should not accept the applicability of a customary solution without first establishing its appropriateness to the context where it is to be applied.
It is rewarding to give back to the profession and community. It is impactful as well. Planners can help by contributing time and resources to the professional development of students, interns, beginning professionals, and other colleagues. We can contribute time and effort to our communities, particularly to those groups lacking adequate planning resources through pro bono planning activities. Also, we can increase the opportunities for members of underrepresented groups to enter into the profession, succeed, and achieve AICP certification. Someone, somewhere needs your talents.
The AICP Ethics Golden Rule is to “Serve the Public Interest”—this should be at the forefront of everything planning professionals do. Planners seek to provide public understanding. We are ever-mindful of equity and the rights of others. We provide clear, timely information. It is essential to build and maintain the public’s trust.
Dee Caputo, FAICP presents in the Ethics of Building a Legacy of Planning session
Planning professionals look to build planning processes to complement and support the AICP Golden Rule. The Golden Rule is broken when we disregard ethical and equitable processes. Planners are intricately involved in building processes to serve the public interest in numerous ways including, but not limited to, comprehensive planning, functional plans, public involvement, conflict of interest recusal policies, development review, subdivision regulations, and zoning administration. Great things are accomplished by lots of little things coming together. Seek to create an environment where violating the Ethics Golden Rule becomes difficult by building strong, ethical planning processes.
Ethics is essential for effective planning efforts and should be part of the value system of planning professionals at all levels of government and at all levels of life everywhere. Living ethical values is vital to building a legacy of planning.
Western Planner All-Stars (from left): Ben Orsbon, FAICP; Katie Guthrie, AICP; Brad Stebleton; Dan Pava, FAICP; Larry Weil; Dee Caputo, FAICP; Mark Kulaas, FAICP.
About the Author
Larry Weil is a longtime City of West Fargo resident and former Director of Planning and Zoning and Director of Community Development. Now retired, Larry serves on the Western Planner Resources board as the representative for the West Central Chapter.