Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT . <br />Meeting Date: December 12, 2006 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. _~ <br />SUBJECT• Ethics and Conduct for County Public Servant Policy <br />DEPARTMENT: County Attorney PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />1. Draft Policy <br />2. Title VII, Chapter 460, 1987 Session <br />Laws <br />3. G.S. § 153A-44 <br />4. March 13, 2006 Letter to the Board of <br />County Commissioners from County <br />Attorney <br />5. Excerpt of March 15, 2006 BOCC <br />Meeting <br />6. Comments on Draft Policy from <br />Commissioner Gordon <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Geof Gledhill, 919-732-2196 <br />PURPOSE: To consider an Orange County policy establishing ethics and conduct for County <br />public servants. <br />BACKGROUND: The Board considered this Policy at its November 14, 2006 meeting and <br />again at its December 4, 2006 meeting. During the December 4, 2006 meeting Board members <br />raised the questions that follow. A response prepared~by the County Attorney follows each <br />question: <br />1. Why are elected or appointed members of the Board of County Commissioners, <br />before they take office, defined as legislators and public servants? This aspect of the Policy is <br />intended to insure that unethical .conduct, for example receipt of impermissible gifts, does not <br />occur between election or appointment but before taking office that could influence the Board <br />member elector Board member appointee after the Board member takes office. <br />2. To what extent must a covered person include, in the covered person's statement <br />of economic interest, information concerning the covered person's family member? The <br />statement of economic interest must include information about the covered person and the <br />covered person's immediate family. Immediate family is defined in the Policy as follows: <br />An unemancipated child of the covered person residing in the household, the <br />covered person's spouse, if not legally separated and a domestic partner as <br />defined in the County's Personnel Ordinance. A member of a covered person's <br />extended family shall also be considered a member of the immediate family if <br />actually residing in the covered person's household. <br />