Dear Dilemma: Candid about Candidates

Dear Dilemma,

My partner and I are Registered Professional Planners (RPPs) who own and operate a planning firm. While we were recently discussing the upcoming municipal election, I mentioned that we (or even the firm) should work for or donate to the campaign of one of the candidates we both like.

My partner was surprised and said they thought it wouldn’t be ethical to do so.
They offered the following points to consider:

• What if the candidate we supported ended up on Council and had to decide whether or not to hire us as consultant planners?
• What if the candidate we supported ended up on the Committee of Adjustments and had to make decisions on proposals presented by us?

Should we, as RPPs, be worried about working for or donating to a political campaign?
Is that prohibited by the OPPI Professional Code of Practice?

Signed, Candid about Candidates
 

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Dear Candid about Candidates,

Thanks for your letter. As you know, any opinion(s) Dear Dilemma shares on this matter cannot be taken as legal advice, and furthermore, only OPPI’s Complaints and Discipline Committees are authorized by statute and by-law to make final determinations regarding potential breaches of the Code. Additionally, please be aware that a member of the public is free to file a formal complaint at any time.

At present, OPPI does not have any prohibitions or rules regarding donations or involvement of OPPI members with political campaigns.  With that said, there are circumstances where political donations or involvement in political campaigns could be problematic.
 
In answer to any question, Dear Dilemma can always give the overly-safe advice to members: “Don’t do anything that could even remotely be considered, by anyone, as unethical!”

Whether your actions would actually be a breach of the Professional Code of Practice or not, it might still look bad to somebody and lower their opinion of OPPI, its Code, and its members. As well, as a practical matter, anyone would have the right to file a formal complaint against you, which would then be carefully reviewed by OPPI. It’s not a painful process but it can be time-consuming and inconvenient, therefore you may want to try to avoid any conduct that might lead to a complaint being filed against you.

As to the actual question of how political donations and involvement by OPPI members might be covered by the Code, I would point out that section 2 speaks to the main aim of the Code: to promote the public interest by ensuring that planners are not improperly influenced to give planning advice other than their actual independent professional opinion. (See sections 2.10, 2.13 and 2.14.)

Does this mean that if a planner presents their honest independent professional opinion in support of a proposal, and then the proposal is approved by Council because of a political donation from the planner (or “returns a favour” in view of past political contributions) – then, while that may be improper for the Council members, it is not technically a breach of the Code by the planner?

Not necessarily. Don’t forget section 3.5 of the Code: a planner making a political donation to get a favourable decision would definitely “reflect adversely on the integrity of the profession.” That is, it would be a breach of the Code even though it is not at all an example of a planner being improperly influenced to change their planning advice.

In the final analysis, OPPI affirms the rights of its members to participate in the political process fully, including by working for or donating to a political candidate. But OPPI would also remind members to carefully turn their minds to issues of conflict of interest or potential breaches of the Professional Code of Practice.

In a small number of very fact-specific situations – e.g. a private-side planning firm donating to a politician who is or could end up in a position to make important decisions that would benefit the firm, such as granting controversial planning approvals for the firm’s clients, or giving lucrative consulting contracts to the firm itself – a member might decide that such a donation could be (or could appear to be) ethically problematic, and thus is best avoided.

Signed, Dilemma

 

The intent of this blog post is to provide general advice to professional planners in Ontario, and this should not be taken as the Institute’s definitive position on this matter. Only OPPI’s Complaints and Discipline Committees are authorized by statute and by-law to make final determinations regarding potential breaches of the Code. Complaints are investigated on a case-by-case basis and judgments are arrived at based on the facts of that specific case.