Conflict of Interests?

[IacomusIosephus]

Is there anything wrong with a publicly balloted and subsequently elected politician from simultaneously operating as a principal at a Catholic parish school, while retaining public office?

 

[midori]

Lots of people with “day jobs” work as elected officials-- mayor, City Councilmembers, County Commissioners, etc. Often times, these people are business owners or are otherwise prominent in their communities. Their 9-to-5 day jobs often give them perspective on the issues and problems facing their local government, whether it’s city, or county, or some other level. Honestly, I’d rather have politicians with day jobs— you get career politicans when the office starts paying a living wage, and it gets harder to get a healthy turnover.

So, that being said, how would being involved in the day-to-day problems of administering a school, public or private, bring a conflict of interest to this particular office that some other occupation wouldn’t?

 

[jpjd]

According to Wikipedia:
“A conflict of interest is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgment or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest.”

Are you thinking that being a principal is a conflict of interest with being a politician? Or is the issue that being a Catholic principal conflicts with being a poliitician?

 

[Ridgerunner]

One could just as easily say that being Catholic at all constitutes a conflict of interest in one’s discharge of public duties inasmuch as Catholicism is a moral set all its own which can easily conflict with public mores or “civic culture” as it is commonly understood.

And that has always been true.