Here is the fiduciary duties section from the Grand Jury Report, Unsportsmanlike Conduct, drawn from the Markkula Center article “Public Officials as Fiduciaries”:
City Councilmembers’ Standards for Governance
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics detailed the fiduciary duties of public officials in an article entitled “Public Officials as Fiduciaries.” The article describes those duties as follows:
Duty of Care — The public official must competently and faithfully execute the duties of the office, including managing assets competently, being a good steward of the public treasury, using due diligence in the selection and supervision of staff, following the rules, and upholding the constitution and laws of the jurisdiction.
Duty of Loyalty — Public fiduciaries have an absolute obligation to put the public’s interest before their own direct or indirect personal interests. The public fiduciary breaches this obligation when he or she benefits at the public expense.
Duty of Impartiality — Public officials have a duty to represent all of their constituents fairly — not favoring those of their own party, not letting past electoral opposition affect their judgment, and overcoming any inherent bias they possess.
Duty of Accountability — From this duty flow transparency, disclosure, open meetings, and accessibility of public records. Without it, the public’s ability to monitor the behavior of public fiduciaries would be severely limited.
Duty to Maintain Public Trust in Government — Without public trust, government doesn’t work. The public is willing to delegate authority and sacrifice some freedoms in exchange for an orderly and civilized society, but only if it believes that government is acting in the public’s best interest.