Ethics -- good story in the Trib today

Today's Chicago Tribune has a story about an ethics prof at Chicago's DePaul University who writes a column for not-for-profit agency professionals. He's Woods Bowman, who teaches at DePaul and writes a column called "The Nonprofit Ethicist" for The Nonprofit Quarterly magazine. Bowman, who used to be an Illinois state legislator, know about ethics where the rubber hits the road in the real world, and I think he's got some interesting things to say about it.

In a previous incarnation, I knew him as state Rep. "Woody" Bowman, D-Evanston. He once sat down with me and told me exactly how lawmakers' higher ed appropriations get divvied out. He's the only guy who ever explained it to me so it made sense. He left the legislature 15 years ago. Says reporter Charles Storch of the Trib:

"The Nonprofit Ethicist" has fielded questions on matters such as donated art kept in an ex-director's home; jobs doled out to relatives or pals; spouses on the same board; donations used for staff parties; charity auction conflicts; and church thrift shop volunteers who set aside the good clothes for themselves.

"When it comes to ethics, nothing is penny ante," Bowman replied to that thrift shop's overseer in a 2006 column. "You never know where small ethical lapses might lead."

When he is not being a moral compass, Bowman teaches graduate students in a DePaul program that prepares them for careers in non-profits or government. In his office in the Loop, the lean, bald and bearded Bowman explained his approach to the advice column.

"A lot of it is just basic logic, understanding what people's obligations are in particular situations and being true to those obligations," he said.

He added, "Very often, ethical problems are choices between two things that are good in and of themselves, but they conflict and you can't do both at the same time. Right versus right, or the lesser of two evils. The situation shouldn't have occurred in the first place, but you have to make a decision."

After he left the legislature, Bowman worked for then-Cook County Board President Richard Phelan during the early 90s and joined DePaul in 1996. He also paid his dues working with Chicago's Goodwill Industries, trying to straighten out financial irregularities. He wasn't successful, but it taught him a lot about non-profit agencies:

Bowman's Goodwill experience confirmed many of his beliefs about non-profit governance: Problems often can be traced to boards that do not have much turnover and put too much faith in a chairman or executive director. Bad boards often put the needs of individuals above those of the community the charity serves.

As for executive directors, he observed, "Good management requires technical skill as well as ethics. You can fail to be a good manager because you are incompetent. But if you are ethically incompetent, you are almost always a bad manager."

So in the end, it gets back to ethics. In fact, I think that's where the rubber hits the road.