Ethical Issues In Detroit Case Study

Factors in implementation of recommendations In order for Detroit to be a viable city in the 21st century, city public administrators are going to have to learn to work together with the private sector. There are many factors that come into play with this strategy, more so since the scandal brought on by Kwame Kilpatrick and his associates. No one knows this better than the Emergency Manager for Detroit, Kvyn Orr. From Orr’s experiences as Detroit’s financial manager, we can predict the challenges in the actual implementation of my recommendations. In 2013, Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder hired Kvyn Orr as Detroit’s Emergency Manager. Snyder tasked Orr with the responsibility to make Detroit a financially stable and desirable city for

First, the city of Detroit is wrought with inequality. From coming from the Detroit Metro region, I can state that there are blatantly obvious areas of wealth and poverty. This disparity demonstrates the ethical issues that Detroit’s bankruptcy shed light on and that equality social justice needs to address. Glaser et al. (2011) states that, “Public leadership intent on advancing social equity must encourage individuals to focus less on their personal well-being and more on community well-being…”(p 21). Public administrators being more interested in their own wellbeing is exactly what drove Detroit into bankruptcy, as especially evident from Kwame Kilpatrick’s case explained earlier. Selfish behavior on previous city public administrators also effects how residents respond to inequality. “For many Americans, the sticking point in tackling inequality is not that they view inequality as good or necessary, but that they lack confidence in public officials’ willingness or ability to address it effectively” (Hacker, 2010, p 174). Lack of faith in city public officials contributes to how residents of Detroit respond to inequality of services and improvements to the city. However, this can be rectified through my recommendations, which would hopefully provide opportunities for city leadership to create, “Regulations sought to limit conflicts of interests, encourage transparency, and discourage reckless risk taking that placed the desire for private gain in conflict with the integrity and security of the financial system”(Hacker, 2010, p 194). In order for equality to be maintained in Detroit, public officials and business leaders will need to prove to the city’s residents that they have their best interests at heart by making city infrastructure and services improvements in areas that are long over due.