Conflict of Interest?

Question

Conflict of Interest?

Mountain Water Sewer Mgr (Civil/Environmental)

(OP)

28 Apr 23 20:48

I am currently a utility manager for a municipality. My previous position was as an environmental design engineer for a consulting firm where I worked on environmental site assessments and contaminated site characterization and remediation. When I left the consulting firm I met the ASTM definition of an Environmental Professional. In my currently position I was asked by City management, because they were aware of my previous experience, to provide some assistance on the sale of a City owned property when the prospective buyers env due diligence revealed contamination on the site that the City did not know about. Until now my assistance has consisted of interpreting environmental studies and sample results and made some recommendations for additional investigations at the site. The City desperately needs to sell the property because they have already allocated the ptoceeds from the sale to the construction of a new City Hall facility as construction has already begun. The state has offered to provide a NAD for the site, which is what the lender for the prospective buyer is requiring to approve the loan, if the City conducts some additional sampling and the results indicate that the subject property is not the source of the contamination. The City asked me to find a consultant to complete the samping which I did and because the consultants costs came back much higher than City mgmnt expected they asked me to complete the appication for the NAD as the environmental professional where I will be required to include a statement to certify tha that the property is protective of HH and the environment. The sampling results do infact allow me to make that statement without question thankfully. I'm 99% positive that this is not a conflict of interest but I'm just wondering if there could be an appearance of conflict or if I should include a statement in the NAD app that clearly states that I have no conflict???

phamENG (Structural) · Answer 1 · 2023-04-28 21:11:46

I don't think this is a conflict of interest - the consultant would have been in a similar situation, hired by the city to review and certify.

You'd do well to have a discussion with an attorney to ensure you're not exceeding your authority as a city employee doing this, though. When acting as an employee of the government, you are afforded certain protections against liability. This may not fall under that and you could be left holding the bag if any errors are found later.

dik (Structural) · Answer 2 · 2023-05-28 20:12:06

NAD? Naturally aspirated diesel? Without additional testing and evaluation, I don't think you can ethically certify anything. You should not be relying on the government protecting you from liability. You can obtain new data and review it yourself and determine there is no issue. In particular if the question has been raised, I think you have to develop a procedure to confirm/deny. Having done the due diligence, you can then forward the NAD, whatever that is

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

StrucPatholgst (Structural) · Answer 3 · 2023-05-30 16:18:06

RE: Conflict of Interest?

StrucPatholgst (Structural) 30 May 23 16:18

NAD - No Association Determination.

CWB1 (Mechanical) · Answer 4 · 2023-05-30 17:46:51

Depends on your management chain. If you work beneath the city's regulatory engineer then its a big conflict of interest and violation of govt ethics law bc your boss would be self-certifying the agency's work. If you work for a muni poco or other agency with a separate chain reporting up to the politicos then you'd have the arms-length separation needed for it not to be a conflict of interest, its one agency certifying another.

A consultant hired to review and certify test results would be contractually guaranteed payment regardless if the testing passed or failed, so there's no comparison to the OP's position.

dik (Structural) · Answer 5 · 2023-05-30 18:55:17

Whatever the chain of command is, you have to do what is proper. A question has been raised, and it is essential to determine if there is any merit to it. Having determined that, you can move forward.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

GoLogica technologies (Civil/Environmental) · Answer 6 · 2023-05-31 09:56:03

I think this is a conflict of interest. may be consultant would be in a some different situation, hired by the city to review and certify.
As NAD plays some important Role in the society.they have more transparent and conformation is required, they will go for second opinions.
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dik (Structural) · Answer 7 · 2023-05-31 12:46:19

any connection? Ancient Greek for helmsman was "kybernetikos", the root of the word cybernetics?

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

zelgar (Civil/Environmental) · Answer 8 · 2023-06-01 15:40:32

I don't think this is a conflict of interest. As the OP indicated, the Municipality he works for is preparing an application to the State to get the NAD. The consultant provided the sampling, and the OP is preparing the application to the State. It appears that the consultant did the sampling, but was asking for more money to fill out the application. The OP felt confident to be able to interpret the results of the sampling in order to adequately fill out the application.

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