Salt Lake City Olympics Scandal

Part A - Research the Salt Lake City Olympics scandal and address specific issues that link to Bigtown's situation.

Upon reading the article, "The Big Business of the Olympics and Bribery, I can identify several items that are similar to the proposed arrangement for Bigtown's mayor. First, it is unfair to offer contracts for city work to companies who can bring convention business. Not all companies may be able to bring convention business to the town at this time. Unfortunately, this would leave a lot of businesses out of the running if they were not willing to bring business into the town; they would not be offered the same fairness when bidding on a city contract.

I noticed that with the Salt Lake City scandal, The Salt Lake Organizing Committee had attempted to sway the stakes of hosting the Olympics by bribing the members of the International Olympics Committee with expensive gifts; unfortunately, the members who received those gifts also broke committee laws by accepting gifts that were valued over the $150.00 threshold (The Big Business of the Olympics and Bribery 1999). This is similar to what the mayor of Bigtown is contemplating in that he is willing to offer high paying contracts for city work to those who bring business into the town.

The mayor needs to consider whether specific state or local laws would be broken as a result of him offering or guaranteeing city contracts to those who bring business into the town. The result here would be an illegal transaction that could cost the mayor his seat and may be forced to resign as mayor; not to mention the ethical side of this in that it is wrong to place a limit on companies unless they can offer something in return. In addition, the companies that are involved could be held accountable as well for agreeing to such a deal.

Reference:

The Big Business