I serve on my town's Cultural Council, which awards
state-financed grants to local arts projects. Many council
members themselves are artists and are permitted to apply for
grants. Those members leave the room when we consider their
proposals. But unlike ordinary applicants, every council member
seeking a grant has received one. Is it ethical for council
members to receive these funds? -- Name Withheld,
Massachusetts
Conflicts of interest cannot be averted simply by having a
potential beneficiary put his head down on his desk and close his
eyes or leave the room for two minutes, or via some other
elementary-school methodology. (And then you all get cupcakes.
That someone's mom baked from scratch.) The interconnectedness of
town life demands more stringent safeguards.
The law does permit you to finance a colleague if certain
procedures are followed. Your state's "Local Cultural Council
Program Guidelines" declares: "a grant to a sitting council
member individually will, at a minimum, involve a disclosure
filing, local legislative or (Massachusetts Cultural Council)
exemption and nonparticipation in the decision." But as the
guidelines acknowledge, these are minimum requirements to deter
conflicts of interest, and a local council may go further and
"make its own rules regarding funding council members." Ethics
demands that you do.
You might forbid council members to apply for grants during
their tenure. This would require sacrifice on their part, but
such is the nature of public service. And presumably members join
for only a limited time; council membership is not a career.
An additional possibility: Submit member applications to a
council in another town. They do yours; you do theirs.
(Similarly, some newspapers use an outside critic, rather than a
staff writer, to review a staff member's book.) Just don't get
too friendly with the folks in the next town. No romantic
multitown Cultural Council retreats in the Berkshires.
I am a casino employee and an expert in gaming. At another
casino, I saw a woman losing heavily at blackjack, a game
requiring some skill. Clearly she had no idea of the statistics
of the game and was throwing away money on bad bet after bad bet.
She would have been better off playing roulette or slot machines
or any game based on luck. Should I have said something to her?
-- Name Withheld, California