ABSTRACT
The consummate professional integrates the technical, ethical, and leadership dimensions of her craft. Public service professionals find their responsibilities affected by a host of trends and issues: downsizing, homeland security, contracting reforms, an aging staff, performance measurements, citizen demands, and the thinning of management ranks already eroded by a decade of cutbacks. The democratic context of public service requires a healthy and open debate about competing values to avoid issues. Provision of services also includes those that are essential, if mundane, such as water, electricity, and, in this case, trash collection; professional technical, ethical, and leadership skill is vital to ensure health and safety. The preceding vignettes provide insight into how difficult it is to be a public service professional. Ethical demands on professionals are substantial. Public health and safety decisions are integral to national defense, fire management, and garbage collection. Indeed, public service professionals, by definition, handle critical social responsibilities to ensure quality of life.
