Title:AICP Certification Exam Prep Session, Part 6: AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

در بخش ۶ از جلسه آمادگی آزمون گواهینامه AICP 2021، دوین لاوین، FAICP، از منابع مطالعاتی مبتنی بر وب برنامه‌ریزی مقدماتی، کد اخلاقی AICP و حوزه موضوعی رفتار حرفه‌ای را از آزمون گواهینامه AICP مرور می‌کند. بیشتر بدانید: https://planning.org/certification/register/

قسمتي از متن فيلم: So um i say this every time i i run through this uh section uh it says this is 10 of the exam it’s going to feel like 50 of the exam um the way the questions come at you and the way they seem to uh really make you uh think uh you will

Spend a disproportionate share of your time on these questions and um i think they’ll leave a lasting impression on you to the point where you’ll believe you know there’s absolutely no way uh it represented 10 of the exam content so um so the code of ethics and professional conduct

You need to understand ethic issues inside and out you’ll need to be able to recite the code of ethics and use them in scenario questions and i cannot stress this enough um i can’t stress it beyond all caps on a slide but uh choose the best answer there’s going to be multiple correct

Answers um plan on two answers that are clearly wrong plan on one that represents the least you could possibly do to still be in compliance with the uh the code and then there’s gonna be one that’s even better um choose the best answer and expect to see and this is something

We’ve had in our slide deck for um you know the 15 years we’ve been doing this maybe more important now but expect to see multicultural and gender issue questions um and refer to the apa website and resource the whole time you’re studying for this on on how to prepare for the questions

That you can expect to see so the best source is the apa website planning.org ethics will take you directly to the section of the site you need to know what do you need to study specifically the aicp code of ethics and then we also have the ethical planning practitioner

By jerry weights from 2016. you’re going to want to get a copy of this book there’s also the apa’s policy and practice manual um i don’t know if you if you’re all apa members when you signed up for the apa you’ve got a policy and practice manual so it’s not a code

But it basically tells you as a planner how you’re expected to act so there’s the apa policy and practice manual we also have apa cases of the year every year they publish ethics cases and they break it down it’s a great great resource to kind of see what ethical issues planners

Are dealing with and how the apa would suggest that you deal with them this one is great ethic toolkits all the state conferences all the different chapters have put on their own conferences and um when you go to um when you’re with the national apa conference or a state chapter um

These are the uh sessions that seem to have the you know the largest attendance we have to get so many credits as it relates to law and ethics um and so to help the different state chapters plan for the courses at their conferences to to get people the continuing uh

Credits that they need they’ve published a series of toolkits to help local chapters uh conduct ethic sessions and in these toolkits are different examples of questions to ask your audience it’s a great resource and then of course if there’s study guides put up by the chapters

Look there as well so we look at the code of ethics section a these are the aspirational principles these are a statement statements of aspirational principles that constitute the ideals to which we are committed we shall strive to act in accordance with our stated principles however an allegation that we fail to

Achieve our aspirational principles cannot be the subject of a misconduct charge or cause for disciplinary action so um if you break these you you can’t really get in trouble um but they’re the aspirational princes the things we’re always striving towards and so this is broken into three sections we have uh our overall

Responsibility to the public number one i mentioned that before that our responsibility to the public is is at the forefront it’s the very first part of the code of ethics and so we have an overall responsibility to the public and just a couple of examples there’s

There’s more than a through c um but we shall we shall always be conscious of the rights of others we shall have a special concern for the long-range consequences of present actions and we shall pay special attention to the interrelatedness of decisions and so as an example if you’re creating a plan and

You fail to think about an externality or some something that happened as a result of your recommendation and maybe you recommended a bunch of multi-family near the train station and now the trains are over capacity and the railroad needs to spend a billion dollars to increase capacity

If someone brings that on you and accuses you of it you know you didn’t see the interrelatedness of decision it’s not subject to a charge but it’s something we need to be thinking about and so again these are these overall aspirational principles so number one responsibility to the public

Number two in section a is our responsibility to our clients and employers we owe diligent creative and competent performance of work that we do in pursuit of our client or employers interests such performance however shall always be consistent with our faithful service to the public interest again that public interest shows up

Even in our responsibility to our clients so we shall exercise independent professional judgment on behalf of our clients or employers these are just again some of the some of the principles taken verbatim uh we shall accept the decisions of our client for employer concerning the objectives and nature of professional services we perform

Unless that course of action is illegal or plainly inconsistent with our primary obligation to the public interest um so if you read this code and you think about how how they might basically test me on on these things and uh expect questions about uh your boss tells you

One thing and you believe another thing how should you respond and so you might think your plan is better than your boss’s plan and which plan do you present to plane commission do you present both or do you present your boss’s plan or do you present your plan because it’s

Better so you can think through a scenario where you’re looking at that and so um you might say well hey mine is better i’m going to present that well that’s wrong even presenting both is wrong we shall accept the decision of our employer now if they said uh uh we want you uh

You know jim i want you to present this plan um you know i i heard what the public said that didn’t make any sense and so i created this uh last night and and so when we look at our primary obligation to the public interest then you might see that conflict so

Um a good way to study and prepare for the exam is as you read through the code think about the different uh scenarios uh all of these were written for a specific reason there’s nothing in here that’s just sort of uh feel good text it’s all been

Uh written to um to help us um conduct our daily uh tasks as planners and so if you kind of think about it read it through that lens you’ll be able to think about scenarios where um you know why this exists and that’ll help you

Prepare for the exam uh this is a big one we shall avoid the conflict of interest or even the appearance of a conflict of interest in accepting assignments for our clients employers um some of the kind of legacy questions we’ve seen over the years is you know you’re an employer you’re a

Developer in uh city why there’s a lot of i think um planing families in the in the aicp exam where my husband and wife are once a planner once a developer but um you know if you’re bringing forward a plan or your your husband’s bringing forward a plan for development

What do you do do you a sit quietly and let the plan go through uh do you be you know disclose that your husband’s bringing that plan through and still evaluate the proposal c do you disclose the conflict of interest um remove yourself from the case and allow someone else in the department

To review that plan so again you’ve removed the conflict of interest you’re sitting this one out it’ll be a perfectly fine answer except incomes d which is the best answer you convinced you convinced your husband not to bring forward this opportunity and to develop that development in another community

So again in that scenario c is a good answer and consistent with the code but but that option b is the appearance of conflict of interest uh it’s gonna be the best answer so think about things like that uh the third part of section a is our responsibility to our profession

Uh and colleagues so we shall contribute to the development of and respect for our profession by improving the knowledge and techniques making work relevant to solutions of community problems and increasing public understanding of planning activities so uh we shall protect and enhance the integrity of our profession we shall

Educate the public about planning issues uh in the relevance of everyday life so you’re on the vacation and you uh do what i do you like to to tell i would tell my kids stuff all the time that drives them nuts but i’m doing i’m doing my part uh so section b

Of the code uh our rules of conduct um section b these are the rules of conduct which we’re held accountable if we violate any of these rules we can be the object of a charge of misconduct and so have the responsibility of responding to and cooperating with the investigation and enforcement

Procedures if we are found to be blameworthy by the aicp ethics committee we shall be subject to the imposition of sanctions that may include loss for certification so these are the rules these are the uh the things that we need to obey so they are written much more matter of fact we

Shall not solicit prospective clients or employment through the use of false or misleading claims harassment or duress we shall not misstate our education experience training or any other facts which are relevant to professional qualifications we shall not sell or offer to sell these are just some examples but

These are the uh the things where if you violate them uh there’s gonna be an investigation um and they’re the things that i think cast a black eye on the entire profession so um the aicp one and the big part of what is aicp is this section specifically

Of the code uh section c uh these are advisory opinions based on the code so they contain all the procedural provisions of the code if you want advice if you think you might be moving into something that is unethical you can seek advice so you can ask for informal advice you

Can ask for formal advice all of the specifics are written in here under the advisory opinion so what happens when advice is requested by a member and then opinions issued without the request of a member and then we have the annual report how are uh things educated uh this is section d

So how do we file a complaint uh who do we file it to uh there’s names dates titles there’s a whole flow here you need to know that when you file a complaint it goes to the ethics officer which is uh jim peters um they will have a certain amount of time

To review it and respond then there’s fact gathering uh you have um a chance to appeal you have so many days to appeal know this inside and out um so these are all the different uh headings within that section d how to file a complaint what the review is what fact gathering is

What’s the exploration of a settlement uh what happens when a decision is reached how can you appeal it um and what’s the effect of dropping charges by the complainant or if the resignation of the respondent and then how does it get reported how does all the uh

Ethics charges get reported to the uh to the apa and the aicp um and then section e discipline of our members so if we’re found to be in violation of the code um what does it mean what are the types of discipline what if we’re convicted of a serious crime

Not even related to uh planning but uh you know i don’t know embezzling money from our municipality what would happen to our aicp what if we’re convicted of other crimes uh what is unethical conduct how do we what’s the revocation suspension or restriction of our licenses um the duty to notify the ethics

Officer if any of this happens um and then how do we petition for reinstatement so this is the procedural ticky tacky things that you need to know so again know this document inside and out it is the thing that sets you apart from just having an apa membership

Social justice planning for diverse and underserved communities planners must advocate for social justice our code of ethics states we shall seek social justice by working to expand choice and opportunity for all persons recognizing a special responsibility to plan for the needs of the disadvantaged and to promote racial and economic integration

Um this is especially important you know boy probably this year more than any other year we’ve done this but the country is becoming uh more diverse we’re getting larger economic gaps so this is important and then we also have social empowerment in planning especially during the 60s i mentioned paul davidov

We began to see these grassroots organizations that came up to help solve local issues and planners at all levels should support grassroots organizations and also make sure during planning processes that residents concerns have taken into account i know it can get frustrating at the local level where residents against the new swimming pool

Form a uh a coalition and uh and fight everything but those are the grassroots organizations that i think we need to we need to make sure we take their concerns into account and we support their creation so i don’t know how we’re doing on time trevor we have

I got a couple of quick practice questions they all come from the bulletin though um yeah i think um we’ve probably got a couple minutes left evan i would just suggest maybe picking one or two questions that you think are the best and then i think maybe we’ll end with just

Opening up to general questions after you do that okay so these come from the apa uh bulletin um i think you can download it on the um where you find all the information out about the asp exam there’s a i think it’s a 60 question kind of prep

Guide i pulled out a couple that were related specifically to the code of ethics so we have mark here uh asked by the local chamber to present his views on economic development versus environmental protection and it’s been the topic of a great debate in the community as a planning director mark has

Developed a reputation for being an environmentalist often at odds with the chamber moreover there’s a good planning uh planner word moreover mark’s job is in serious danger as the planing board lost three of mark’s strongest supporters in yesterday’s election a week after he agreed to speak uh before the chamber

Before the election market intended to focus on environmental protection from a naturalist viewpoint now with his job in jeopardy mark has decided to shift his focus to economic benefits of environmental protection so which of the following best describes his his decision it violates the aspirational principles of the asp code of ethics

If you’re paying attention and you know the code you can’t violate an aspirational principle so we can throw that one away it’s in violation of the rules of conduct okay we can let’s come back to that it’s not in violation of the isp uh code of ethics

And then we have both a and b well we already threw a out so right off the bat i told you you could be able to eliminate two uh responses pretty much so right here we get rid of uh a and b and now we need to know did what he do

Violate the code of ethics and just looking at this scenario he just changed the topic of his presentation uh it’s not in violation of the aac code of ethics it’s just knowing your audience and knowing what where would you file a charge misconduct the ethics officer designated by the asp

Commission his name jim peters option b um and then i’ll give you one more here’s a senior plan of the town planning department james argued successfully against any further non-residential development within the town’s recharge areas to its public welfields five years later as a consultant james is aggressively

Pursuing a rezoning of a thousand acres of land within the water supply areas uh which of the following choices of fight it definitely violates the code of ethics it possibly violates the code of ethics it does not violate the code of ethics and there’s insufficient information to respond

Uh i would say very few questions are going to have insufficient information to respond i would throw that one away i don’t think you can possibly violate the code of ethics so d and b come out and now we’re just basically saying he was a senior planner that was against development

Now he’s a consultant and he’s for development uh is in violation of the code and i think the key here is how much time has passed it’s five years later um there’s a stipulation with the you know set of time and the um opportunity to become more

Knowledgeable in an area a planner can change their mind so he is the answer to this one is c that does not violate the code of ethics uh so that’s it that’s the last question uh thanks for attending the seminar good luck on the exam a couple of classic uh um

Exam photos spies like us um and uh with that i guess we can turn it over trevor to any uh questions people might have okay um Let’s see all right um so i only see uh if anybody has any questions please type them out uh the only question i had uh was devin how many uh ethics questions do you think are on the exam huh well i mean they might weave it into

Plan making an implementation and so it might and it says 10 so what are we at uh would that be 15 questions yeah but it’s it’s gonna it’s i would realistically expect that that number has to be low right yeah when you say it’s probably 30. i i

Think you hit on at the beginning too probably a lot of the questions have some type of ethics hit kind of hidden in them oh exactly right it’s like oh we counted that when it’s a daniel burnham once since it mentioned daniel byrne but when you read through the gist of it

Uh it’s an it’s an ethics question so yeah i would i would plan on 30. i mean it’ll make or break uh whether you pass or fail how well you know this will not yeah straight after would be 15 to 17 but it’s they they they’ll snake it into a

Lot more questions okay is uh john i’m going to ask you this question in one is one month realistically sufficient time to study for the may exam or should we push ourselves to the november exam i would say for let me i’m going to qualify this i’m going to answer it like

A plan depends um or like a politician it depends on the perspective in which you’re starting your uh route to aicp certification um i’m 100 convinced if you’re a planner for a mid-sized municipality let’s say from you know 15 000 people up to a couple hundred thousand people

Um and you’re and you work for that municipality in any in any part of your day you might be dealing with some zoning issues some variation requests helping somebody at the counter writing a plan report for development review writing a staff report for city council but you’re you’re you’re immersed in

This on a daily basis for you to prepare for the exam because you know all the areas of practice you know how to think as a planner you get the zba the plan commission the director planning how to integrate with developers that’s that’s like sleeping to you you know that

So you’ve got to focus on memorizing the the law stuff you got to memorize the history stuff maybe a little bit about the code of ethics but you have less to to learn about if you’re if you’re earlier on in your career or let’s say you are

You work for a private consulting firm and you specialize in transportation plans all right legit planning you’re not going to understand development as well you’re not going to understand land use as well you’re not going to understand writing staff reports for the planned commission as well you’re not going to understand this

Reservation because this is not the world you navigate you navigate transportation planning so you’ve got a lot more to learn about across the spectrum of planning if you work for municipality in an area where you dabble with this on a daily basis you’re literate in all this stuff all

The time as part of your day so if you feel as though you are depending on what you know now most of this is pretty routine to you then in a month’s time of concentrated studying you can probably zero in on law ethics and history if you don’t know these

General areas of planning give yourself more time to come up to speed on these things so you’re going to honestly assess your ability i guess that’s the best answer well that makes yeah it makes a lot more i would say benefits from a great internship that’s right right [Laughter]

I’m going to jump on one question too if the question was how will the exam in the fall be different from the spring can the format information we learned today be used to study for the fall the answer is i think it would be directly definitely the exact same yeah yep

Um okay how many conversion formulas other equations um i okay you’re not going to need to know that there’s sixty three thousand three hundred and sixty inches in a mile but know that there’s five uh five thousand two hundred eighty feet uh know that there’s uh 640 acres in a square mile there’s

Some rule of thumb numbers that will just help you calculate things like density um no if you have 43 560 maybe 43 560 640 acres of square mile um know how many feet are a mile that’s pretty much it there’s fluoride ratio is simple it’s the area of the building divided by the

Area of the lot you need to know that one for sure and then growth rate um i think just that’s i mean i’m going through that now with my seventh grader in in math so that’s just i think know how to calculate uh percent growth but yeah no i would know that

Formula for sure great answer devon yeah i uh the next question too is if we can anticipate the option to take the exam remotely in november i know we’ve got people from the apa on here but i would say 99.9 that yes that would definitely be an option especially

I think that’s their long-term goal and they’re working out the bugs at each time they do it so i would say if if it was me i would say yes but um once again oh here we go and with apa um yes you’re completely right we anticipate keeping the remote testing option

Long term so it will most definitely be in place for the november 2021 cycle and every cycle going forward jen i love that thank you i i’ve been told i’ve been right for a long time so thank you no problem i i we actually i don’t know

Devin can you see mike’s question that might be a good question for jen uh for asap yeah for the aacb canada program participants who already have two years of experience does the timing for this year’s conference mesh with the timeline to submit ce credits for certification in this summer’s essay submission deadline um

Sure it does so if you’re enrolled in the candidate pilot program already and you have an approved application you’ll be able to begin earning your continuing education credits and can use the credits earned at npc21 which will be i believe the first week of may

Um to meet that 16 threshold um and then july 2021 is the next essay submission window so essentially you have between now and the beginning of july to complete those 16 pm’s before you’ll be able to submit your criteria essays okay great thank you jen

A question here i think i can answer are the exam questions for the candidate program and traditional program different uh no i think that’s once again if apa if i’m wrong but i think that the exact same questions right john exactly the exam is identical regardless of which program you’re in

Perfect um and uh one of the questions here from adam is can you explain 55 being a passing score is that based on how each question is weighted exactly it’s based on the weight of the question um so we have two versions of the exam um just so that

Way if you test for the exam more than once you’re kind of given a secondary inversion but essentially um the 55 threshold is a scaled score that is calculated based on the weight of each question so roughly if you answer i believe it’s like 78 of the total amount of questions

Correctly you will pass the exam okay fantastic um i think uh one last question i skipped over is it is the is it currently available remotely through prometric and the answer is correct right yep exactly so may 2020 was the first cycle that we began permitting remote testing

Um so you don’t need a special accommodation or anything like that after you register for the exam you can go to prometric’s website and schedule your uh online remote appointment or your in-person appointment and then i think the final well we’ve got no we’ve got two final questions

Here can you explain the 20 unidentified questions in development that do not count toward the final score um yeah so uh we continuously uh update the exam i think it’s every two to five years depending on whether it’s a general refresh or if it’s a complete overhaul um and we have

۲۰ questions in each uh form of the exam that are not scored that are used uh for exam development that may get put into place as scored questions in the future so they’re not scored so that way we can gauge the successfulness of the questions and we

Want to make sure that they’re worded appropriately that the uh answers to the question are uh factual makes sense and they’re not misleading or confusing anyone um so they’re interspersed within the exam itself they’re not like in a separate category that are explicitly named um like the 20

Pre-test questions they’re just kind of sprinkled into the 170 questions thank you so much and john that’s exactly how you describe it too so um i think uh john also your question or your answer to charlie might have uh if you see her question now she’s asking if she switches from remote

To in person is there a charge or alternatively to switch from may to november is there a charge if you change your appointment i think it’s within 30 days of your scheduled appointment there is a 35 cancellation or rescheduling fee that prometric charges that’s outside of our hands that solely buy them

And then if you are transferring your exam from the current window to the next window if you’re in the traditional path there is a 100 transfer fee and if you’re in the candidate program there’s no transfer fee i saw is there a charge and i was just response answer yes there’s a chart

Uh i think that’s it i don’t i don’t see any other questions i think we got them all trisha asked hers twice because i thought we skipped over it but i think i think we’re all set yeah i i think so too and jen thank you so much for

Helping us with the answers there yeah of course thank you guys okay uh john do you want to say the wrap up i know you’re real good at that no pressure no i just again it’s uh this is an important step and again it really telegraphs your commitment to the profession

Um you’ll all do well are the pass rate for people that have gone through this to get a better sense of it want to demonstrate your commitment to doing well on the exam but the pass rate for people who participate uh in this sort of refresher or orientation

Is significantly higher than those that do it on their own and don’t participate in this so we’ve got a good track record there’s a lot of resources out there contact your pdl go to planning prep to train go to the apa website there’s training sources there if you’re committed to doing the work

You’ll do just fine so this was intended to orient you as to what to expect give you a little bit of better footing going into the exam so that you do better on it but you all should do just fine so thanks for giving up a few hours today we know

There’s a lot going on we think it’s time well spent and hopefully it serves you well and we wish you all the very best on the exam that’s coming up

ID: KJRZE0nm6LY
Time: 1618507380
Date: 2021-04-15 21:53:00
Duration: 00:32:26

منبع