Agenda - 12-12-2006-5j - Laserfiche WebLink

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a Attached to this abstract are written comments on the Ethics Policy submitted by Commissioner Gordon. For the most part these comments are addressed to the Board for its consideration. The County Attorney offers the following observations as to some of Commissioner Cordon's comments. 1. Although helpful to know what county boards are covered. by the Policy, the definition of board is complete as written. The duties of a board can change by action of the General Assembly or Board of County Commissioners. By leaving the definition of board as is in the Ethics Policy the need to amend the Ethics Policy is avoided if a board's responsibilities change in a way that makes it a covered one or no longer a covered one. 2. There are a number of laws, State and federal, defining confidentiality, including, for example, those pertaining to personnel, trade secrets, DSS records, HIPAA records and litigation. It is not practical to list each. in this Policy. And, as with the duties of boards, the laws related to what is confidential can change. 3. Corporations are State "persons," not County "persons." 4. Commissioner Cordon's suggested edit to Article 2, Section 2(a) is redlined into the attached Policy. This edit will require a department head to file a statement of economic interest regardless of the department head's salary. 5. Title VII, Chapter 460, 1987 Session Laws is an attachment to this abstract. 6. .Requiring State-wide rather than Orange County only real estate and personal property asset disclosure is not an oversight or over inclusion in the development of the draft County Ethics Policy. The existence of assets and liabilities and business relationships anywhere in North Carolina could influence Orange County legislative or other official action. 7. Publicly owned and traded stocks, bonds and investment funds (including a mutual fund, regulated investment company, or pension or deferred compensation plan) need not be listed in the statement of economic interest unless the covered person or member of the covered person's immediate family exercises or has the ability to exercise control over the financial interest of the company whose stocks, bonds or investment funds are owned by the covered person. 8. The first sentence of Article 3, Section 4 establishes the ethical standard that information gained by a public servant in the course of public service cannot be used or disclosed in a way that affects a personal financial interest of the public servant, a member of the public servant's extended family or a business or person with which or with whom a public servant is associated. The second sentence makes clear that confidential information may not be improperly used or disclosed. The information addressed in the first sentence is not confidential although it may not be known by the public. For example, the members of the Space Study Task Force were privy to information concerning the availability of the new County campus projects that was not public but not confidential. The Ethics Policy would prohibit a covered person from using that information for personal gain, though its public disclosure would not be unlawful or a violation of the Ethics Policy. On the other hand, the use of trade secret information for the personal gain of the covered person AND its public disclosure are both violations of the Ethics Policy.