San Francisco's Mayor & The Google Guys

[vayapues]

This was originally blogged about by Danny.

I couldn't resist commenting. I think the Mayor probably crossed some very minor ethical boundries, as did Google. But as the article stated, nothing illigal took place.

I personally would see a conflict of interest as the Mayor, that would preclude me from either taking the gifts, or making the final decision on who wins the bid. Most likely the former. Unless the gifts were really nice of course.

All that said, this does seem more like a reporter taking a very minor possible judgement lapse and trying to turn it into a scandal. No scandal. That is just how business is done. How often have I personally been given professional sports tickets by a vendor? Not sure, but on a regular basis.

Than again, I am not in public office. But business is business from the perspective of the seller. No shame in offering the gift. The public official should probably turn it down, but not always.

It does sort of cast a shadow on the 'Do No Evil' mission though.