ADMIN
TECHNORATI
Maricopa Chamber
Maricopa Chamber Ethics Blog
city life
Filed Under Uncategorized
Last modified: November 13, 2007
By Rusty Akers | Email AuthorI am sure that if you are reading this, you have also read, or heard the news that has come out of city hall once again. I have to admit that I am sick to my stomach over another smoking gun smoldering within the halls of the trailers that make up our city. If our city leaders and government are to be trusted we must bring these stories into the light and call them what they are, or squash them like a mosquito and be done with them. Why, oh why, do we hear absolutely nothing? Nothing I say, nothing but more rumors.
Being ethical means we tell the truth, regardless of the consequences. If what we have heard is not the truth, then please someone say so. If it is the truth than someone please say it. When nothing is said it says to me that something is going on, that shouldn’t have been, and someone got caught, so we are going to try and cover this up. Feels very Enron to me, but that is just my opinion.
hispanic real estate and ethics
Filed Under Uncategorized
Last modified: September 17, 2007
By Rusty Akers | Email AuthorWe can only pray that Lawyers and insurance companies are close behind. (just joking for you lawyers and insurance people, sort of?)
Realty ‘Code of Trust’ unveiled
Andrew Johnson
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 16, 2007 07:24 PM
The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals is unveiling a Code of Trust today that it wants its members to follow in light of recent data showing that Latinos are more susceptible to predatory lending.
“En Confianza: The NAHREP Code of Trust,” urges members to offer a prime loan to any consumer who qualifies for one, educate consumers about the impact of “negative amortization” products and provide consumers with all lending information they need at the beginning of a home purchase.
It will be unveiled during the Hispanic Marketing Convention & Expo in Orlando.
The move is prompting by a “crisis in trust in the industry,” said Tim Sandos, president and CEO of the association, adding that the crisis is between “consumers and their trust of professionals in the field.” Association members have indicated they believe that Hispanic borrowers are at greater risk to predatory lending because a lack of knowledge about home buying.
is this a case of reverse ethics
Filed Under Uncategorized
Last modified: September 12, 2007
By Rusty Akers | Email AuthorWhen is it ethical to be unethical to find unethical people. You be the judge. Read on
IT workers have access to confidential data, and they can see what other employees are doing on their computers or the networks. This can put a good worker in a bad predicament. Bryan, the IT director for the U.S. division of German company, discovered an employee using a company computer to view pornography of Asian women and of children. He reported it but the company ignored it. Subsequently the employee was promoted and moved to China to run a manufacturing plant. That was six years ago but Bryan still regrets not going to the FBI. Other IT workers admit using their admin passwords to snoop through company systems. In a Ponemon Institute poll of more than 16,000 U.S. IT practitioners, 62% said they had accessed another person’s computer without permission, 50% read confidential or sensitive information without a legitimate reason, and 42% said they had knowingly violated their company’s privacy, security or IT policies. But in the absence of a professional code of ethics, companies struggle to keep corporate policies up to date.”
you will be caught
Filed Under Uncategorized
Last modified: September 6, 2007
By Rusty Akers | Email AuthorThere is an ancient proverb that says. “The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes the crooked path will be found out” Proverbs 10:9
I keep this proverb stuck in the visor of my truck to remind me of the consequences of not being honest. You will be caught eventually. Working within ethical boundaries means you take the high road of integrity.
When will people figure out that they will be caught. I read this today in the headlines.
TRENTON, N.J. - FBI agents arrested 11 public officials in towns across New Jersey Thursday on charges of taking bribes in exchange for influencing the awarding of public contracts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. READ MORE
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070906/ap_on_re_us/corruption_arrests
maybe we should visit the islands
Filed Under Uncategorized
Last modified: September 1, 2007
By Rusty Akers | Email AuthorIn our little city we occasionaly have some conflict of interest, perhaps we should take some notes from Hawaii.
Hawaii lawmakers urged to adopt ethics rules
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Government Writer
State House lawmakers should adopt new conflict-of-interest rules to prevent lawmakers from voting on bills when they have direct personal or financial interests, the executive director of the state Ethics Commission told a House task force yesterday
The House has an internal code of conduct that warns lawmakers against using their offices to advance personal or private interests but none of the conflict-of-interest rules in state ethics law apply to lawmakers.
“If the public is suspicious, then government really isn’t going to work,” said Dan Mollway, the commission’s executive director.
The task force is considering the creation of a permanent House ethics committee that may be divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans. The committee would handle ethics complaints against lawmakers that may not fall within the jurisdiction of the Ethics Commission, such as conflicts of interest or outside conduct that casts the House in a poor light.
House leaders already have the power to form special committees to investigate lawmakers and recommend punishment to the full House, but such committees rarely have been used to police behavior.
Questions about conflicts of interest have come up in the House during the past two sessions. In 2006, state Rep. Jerry Chang, D-2nd (S. Hilo), privately told colleagues he had a potential conflict on a $50 million tax credit for a new motorsports facility at Kalaeloa. Chang had an ownership interest in a company that had offered to exchange land in Hilo with the state so motorsports developers could acquire the Kalaeloa parcel from the state. The bill was quickly tabled after Chang’s disclosure.
read the entire article at http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070822/NEWS02/708220387/1006/NEWS02
is the web killing our culture
Filed Under Uncategorized
Last modified: August 23, 2007
By Rusty Akers | Email AuthorThis is very insightful article. Is the net causing our culture to become a society without ethics? I think he makes a great point.
Andrew Keen accuses the Internet of killing culture
In an interview conducted by Frédérique Roussel, Andrew Keen, a British blogger and author of ‘The Cult of the Amateur’, denounces the absence of ethics on the Internet. “When I look a the Web, I mainly see cultural and ethical chaos. I note the insidious theft of intellectual property, plagiarism, hardcore pornography, unrelenting spams and intellectual inanity. … Amateur ethics are so dominant that expertise, talent and knowledge are loosing ground. Superficial political analyses, pathetic videos, unreadable novels. The Internet today is like a state of nature closer to Hobbes than to Rousseau, where human behaviour is blossoming without any social rules or regulations. Anarchy. … The Web 2.0 is killing our culture, taking over our economy and destroying our codes of conduct. All this because of a Utopian faith in technological information .”
confession
Filed Under Uncategorized
Last modified: August 22, 2007
By Rusty Akers | Email AuthorThey say that confession is good for the soul. I realize I have been woefully tardy in keeping up with this blog. I have a couple of excuses, one I lost my password, two I keep forgetting to find it.
That being said, I realize that excuses don’t go far. I would like to apologize for my inept posting on this blog, and will begin a new day today.
This is my ethics advise for the day. If you messed it up, admit it, make the best amends you can, and move on.
ethical compass
Filed Under Uncategorized
Last modified: June 21, 2007
By Rusty Akers | Email AuthorMost times following the ethical road, is following the narrow road. I was reminded of this famous case today an article I read. I was reminded that working in business can be very tough, especially when the boss is unethical.
This from Journalnews.com
Business can challenge ‘ethical compass’
Man relates decisions he made during tobacco scandal.
By Michael D. Pitman
Staff Writer
Thursday, June 21, 2007
FAIRFIELD — The man who blew the whistle on tobacco industry practices said his “ethical compass” was challenged on a daily basis in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
Jeffrey Wigand, who was portrayed by actor Russell Crow in “The Insider,” faced tough ethical decisions when he learned of the tobacco industry’s push to market its products to children and that it lied about the effects of nicotine and other additives in cigarettes, he told a crowd at the first-ever Business Ethics
Wigand said as vice president of research and development with Louisville-based Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., where he served from December 1988 to March 1993, he saw irregularities, and that all scientific documents must be reviewed by an attorney before being released.
“In January of 1990, I was challenged daily in terms of my ethical compass, my moral compass,” Wigand said.
He lost his job and his wife left him because of the stress. He and his children also were the subject of death threats.
“It was a long, tough struggle with me personally, with my family, to ultimately put them in harms way so I can maintain my own integrity,” Wigand said.
At the luncheon held at Receptions Conference and Banquet Center, the inaugural Rotary Club of Fairfield’s Rotary Ethical Business Award was presented to The Original Mattress Factory.
It’s the employees who earned the award, said Lou Colantuono.
“It all goes back to (company founder and president) Ron Trzcinski, when he established our philosophy,” Colantuono said.
That nine-point philosophy includes striving for excellence, not compromising integrity, caring about the customers and listening to others, he said.
The company was one of seven Fairfield city and township businesses nominated, which are an example of ethical businesses for the community to look to, said Jim Mullaney, Fairfield Rotary club’s Business Ethics Committee chairman.
Other nominees were Avance Funeral Home & Crematory,
Carson Wrapped Hershey’s Chocolates, DNA Diagnostics,
G&W Products, Osborne Trucking and Schnetzer’s Auto Upholstery.
Mullaney said the committee first established an Ethical Business Guide and distributed it to more than 1,000 businesses. The committee then looked to identify and recognize ethical businesses in Fairfield city and township.
“The most encouraging item for us, as the ethical business committee met with each one of these companies, we found the passion that was displayed by the companies and the leaders of these companies were truly outstanding,” Mullaney said.
ethical or not
Filed Under Uncategorized
Last modified: June 7, 2007
By Rusty Akers | Email AuthorI know I am a bit tardy with this story, but hey I was in Mexico for a few days. This story is from last weeks lpga event.
Everyone knows her, everyone loves her, but is she an ethical golfer. And the bigger question is, is she an ethical person? We are known by others by the actions that we portray. I will let you make the call.
Read the story here.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Jun/06/sp/FP706060414.html
summer
Filed Under Uncategorized
Last modified: June 7, 2007
By Rusty Akers | Email AuthorOkay, this has nothing to do with ethics, but….
I think summer is here, the 108 yesterday got my attention in a hurry. I wonder what most of us here in the Copa will do this summer. I have lived in the Phoenix area my entire life. That makes me a native and gives me the right to complain about the heat. Most summers are spent doing what I do most winters, work. Oh there are the family camping trips to the high country, the occasional trip to So Cal to feel some cool air. But I think most of you, are allot like me. Summer means more child care, higher power bills, and allot of sweat. Not really something I look forward to. In fact us locals know that the only thing that we can look forward to is October. Time to suck it up, its summer. Enjoy it while you can, fall can not be far behind, hopefully.