COUNTY ETHICS REQUIREMENTS FOR CITIZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEES FOR COMMUNITY AND COOMPREHENSIVE PLANS @ 07 Nov 2007

Unlike the old 1984 ethics law, the County's new Ethics Law, adopted in November 2005 and last amended by the Ethics Reform Act of 2007, has disclosure requirements for Citizen Advisory Committees for Community and Comprehensive Plans.  Last week, Ethics Matters sent the following letter to the Board of County Commissioners, the Ethics Commission, and the Planning Commission.

 

 

Dear Commissioners:

 

As the County begins the process of appointing citizens to two Citizens Advisory Committees (CAC), one for the County’s Comprehensive Plan and the other for the Wye Mills Community Plan, we would like to draw attention to Section 8-13.C of the County Ethics Code. 

 

            8-13.C.  All members of boards, commissions and committees listed in Subsection A above as identified in § 8-5.C of this title, and all members of ad hoc committees and task forces providing advice and/or recommendations regarding acquisition, zoning or designation of land, whether appointed by the Board of County Commissioners or appointed by other local government boards or commissions authorized to make such appointments, shall, together with the member's acceptance letter, submit a financial disclosure statement which shall include disclosure of any and all potential conflicts of interest that may be foreseeable as a result of accepting the board, commission or committee appointment.

           

            Because three of our five Ethics Matters Board members were on the five-person QAC Ethics Commission when the Ethics Commission was drafting the County’s new ethics code, we would like to provide some “legislative history” that may be helpful to you in regard to this financial disclosure requirement.

                       

1.  The language in 8-13.C was copied from the St. Mary’s County ethics code and included in the QAC proposed code that was drafted by the 2004 Ethics Commission at the request of the then County Commissioners.  Throughout the three-year process of updating the County’s ethics code under two sets of County Commissioners, this provision was never questioned or changed.

 

2.  The ethics code does not require citizens serving on committees such as a CAC to be subject to the Conflicts Provisions. (See Applicability 8-5.A-E.) Citizens should not be prohibited from CAC membership due to their financial interests or affliations. In fact, membership on these advisory committees should represent diverse land use interests.

 

3. The required financial disclosure is to create transparency.  This transparency serves two purposes.

 

a. It assures the public at large that the membership of a Citizen Advisory Committee represents the various land use interests and represents them fairly in relation to the makeup of the particular community, with no interest group disproportionately represented. 

 

b. It lets members of a committee know what the interests of the other members of the committee are; that is, “where they are coming from” as they add their input to the process.

 

4.  The categories of required financial disclosure (land ownership, business interests, gifts, etc.)  are set forth in 8-13.G and should be the same for each member of a given CAC.  The Ethics Commission may modify these requirements pursuant to 8-15.  For example, in the case of a specific area CAC, such as one for Wye Mills, the disclosure requirement of property ownership, gifts, etc., could be modified by the Ethics Commission to be directly relevant to that particular community, while being sure to provide the transparency that is the purpose of financial disclosure.

 

We hope this letter is helpful to you as citizens are invited to participate on CACs.  We offer it because, unlike the past, Citizens Advisory Committees are subject to our County’s new ethics law, and the application of the law to CACs and similar committees is unique because they are subject to the law’s Financial Disclosure requirements but not to its Conflicts of Interest provisions.

 

Thank you for the opportunity to share with you our understanding of the County’s new ethics law in regard to CACs.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

Mary Campbell


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