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4 <br /> interests of the ABC Board. There will certainly be an appearance of impropriety if the dual <br /> Board Member's decisions are motivated by maximizing County revenues rather than serving the <br /> best interests of the ABC Board. <br /> Most matters that the ABC Board votes on will impact the County's distribution,either directly <br /> or indirectly. The budget, grants,personnel decisions and policies(including but not limited to <br /> issues pertaining to the adoption of a living wage,salary compression,adoption of insurance <br /> plans, GM evaluation/compensation,and salary chart adjustments),and capital projects are all <br /> matters that will inherently impact the annual County distribution because excess profits largely <br /> revert to the County. For these matters,the safest,most protective remedy to protect the <br /> institutional integrity of the Board would be for the dual Board Member to recuse himself or <br /> herself from discussion and voting, consistent with past ABC Board practice to avoid apparent <br /> conflicts of interest. As you are aware,the Board Chair votes only to break a tic and so if one <br /> member needs to recuse themselves for real or apparent conflict of interest, the Board will be <br /> down to at most 3 voting members. It is easy to imagine that a conscientious dual Board <br /> Member would feel compelled to frequently abstain from consideration of issues such as those <br /> described above with direct and indirect fiscal impact to the County,which would inherently <br /> limit the productivity of the position. Conversely,if a dual Board Member failed to recuse <br /> themselves from discussion and voting on agenda items that directly or indirectly impacted the <br /> County's distribution, it could significantly impair efficient and collegial Board operations. <br /> Worse, if the dual Board Member attempted to use their ex officio position to maximize County <br /> revenues at the expense of the ABC Board's best interests,there would also be an appearance of <br /> impropriety sufficient for the Board to seek redress from the State ABC Commission, according <br /> to their General Counsel's office. <br /> In short,it will adversely impact the ABC Board to have an ex officio Board Member who will <br /> either(1)frequently need to abstain from consideration of Board business or(2)consider and <br /> vote on Boardmatters in a manner loyal to a different entity. <br /> Best, <br /> I <br /> Christopher M. Willett <br />