Laserfiche WebLink
There are two kinds of ethics advice: forinal and inforinal. Formal advice requires a <br />written request and consideration by the entire ethics commission. Although an important <br />�va�r for an ethics commission to interpret ethics provisions with respect to complex conflict <br />situations, it can take a long time before formal advice is available to the individual who <br />requested it. <br />Because of the long and uncertain response period associated with formal opinions, <br />officials and employees faced with an imminent situation need quick, informal advice from <br />an ethics officer. An ethics officer may be either a full-time ethics commission staff ineinber <br />or, in smaller jurisdictions, a contracted prof'essional or even an ethics commission member <br />�vho is given special traininb. No one under the ethics commission's jurisdiction or �vho <br />otherwise provides representation to local officials should act as ethics officer. <br />Ethics advice should be bindinb on both the official who requests it or to whom it <br />applies, and to the ethics commission, to the extent the facts provided were correct and <br />complete. <br />Waivers are a form of ethics advice where the official recognizes that conduct would <br />violate an ethics provision, but feels that there are overriding concerns that make the <br />conduct acceptable. Waiver requests should always be dealt with publicly by the ethics <br />commission. <br />2. Conflict of Interest Code <br />A conflict of interest code, usually referred to as an ethics code, is the most visible part of <br />most ethics programs. In fact, many people think it is all there is to an ethics program. Pass a <br />law and you're done. <br />In fact, a code all by itself is often nothing but window dressing for a local <br />government with a poor ethics environment. It can actually be worse than no ethics code at <br />all, because people will come to see that there is no effective ethics program and that, <br />therefore, the government that acted as if it was creating an ethics program is not to be <br />trusted. <br />A conflict of interest code should be both clear and comprehensive. It should begin <br />with a series of ethics provisions, move on to disclosure requirements, and then describe the <br />powers and responsibilities of the ethics commission. The code should set out the process <br />for dealing with ethics complaints and requests for waivers and advice. And finally, the <br />t� <br />