2014_0514_Ethics Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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V. Discuss Ethics Tip The Roseville City Council recently adopted the Ethics Commission's recommendation to amend two provisions of Section 3— Ethical Considerations of the Roseville Code of Ethics. As a reminder, Section 3 enumerates specific ethical violations for the guidance of Public Officials, but is not meant as an exhaustive list of all the potential ethical considerations that might arise. The emphasized text contains the amended language in the two provisions. B. No Public Official shall use information gained as a Public Official which is not generally made available to and/or is not known to the public, to directly or indirectly gain anything of value, or for the benefit of any other person or entity; nor shall any Public Official make such information available when it would be reasonably foreseeable that a person or entity would benefit from it. M. No Public Official shall take an official action or attempt to influence any process which will benefit any person or entity where such Public Official would not have otherwise take such action but for the Public Official's family relationship, friendship, or business relationship with such person or entity. Most public officials and city employees will have conflicting interests on occasion. The Ethics Code is not meant to be a roadmap on how to prevent those conflicts, but rather a guide on how to manage them honestly and responsibly when they do arise. The Ethics Commission determined that these amended provisions provide further guidance to Public Officials in the discharge of their duties in the public interest. The principal objective of an ethics codes is that the official or employee should not favor their own interests or the interests of a family member, friend, or business relationship over the public interest when acting in their official capacity. Generally, if it appears to others that you might be giving someone special treatment or non-public beneficial information, then you should recuse yourself or not act with respect to that person or entity. As an example of where the amended language may apply is if the City Council and the Public Works Department were soliciting a Request for Proposal or Bid for products and services for the Streets Division. You know how specific provisions in the submitted proposals are going to be weighed and a family friend plans on submitting a proposal. If you provide the friend with information on the proposal scoring and then talk to City Council members or the Public Works Director about the merits of that specific submission, you have violated the Code of Ethics by providing confidential information for the benefit of another person and attempted to influence the process for selecting the winning proposal. It is important to give city residents confidence that their officials and employees are treating everyone the same as the credibility of Roseville government hinges on the proper discharge of duties in the public interest.