Conflicts of Interest -- A First Look
by Greg Dale

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    Your spouse hopes for work from a developer, and guess who's before you for a permit? What should you do?

    Plus responses to questions from readers regarding conflicts of interest.

    • Read excerpts from article:

    Conflict of interest questions are part of the larger due process consideration of the impartiality of the planning board or commission. Simply stated, every party before your board is entitled to a fair hearing and decision, free from bias or favor. Having a conflict of interest can threaten that impartiality. Therefore, it is critical that conflicts be identified and dealt with in an appropriate manner.

    The key to the hypothetical situation is not just that your spouse worked for the individual in the past. Previous business dealings with someone appearing before your board is not necessarily enough to establish a conflict of interest, although such past business relationships should be publicly disclosed. More troublesome is the fact that you know your spouse hopes to land more work in the future. As a result, it is conceivable that your decision on the requested zoning change could be affected by this. ...

    From the start of Greg Dale's Revisiting Conflicts of Interest

    Since my first column, which dealt with conflicts of interest, I have received several questions from readers facing potential conflict situations. This column will deal with some of the issues raised by those readers.

    One commissioner was involved with an environmental group prior to serving on his planning commission. This particular environmental group, which was concerned with the protection of an environmentally sensitive stream, had successfully appealed decisions of the planning commission in the past. His question is whether or not he should excuse himself from voting on issues involving the stream.

    Another commissioner asks whether his business associations with past, present, or future clients requesting zoning amendments poses a conflict of interest. ...

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