Town Board adopts Ethics Code revisions

The Town Board unanimously approved changes to the Ethics Code Tuesday morning following last week’s outline of major changes requested by the Board of Ethics.

Board of Ethics Chairman Duff Wilson called the changes “fine tuning,” while outlining three major areas his members see as important to single out.

The first would affect future employment of a person who leaves a Town position and represents a “substantive change,” Mr. Wilson said.

“We decided after people leave employment, it’s hard to get work here,” he said. The recommendation was to stipulate such a person could render services to a new employer based on knowledge of a particular area. But for a period of one year that person could not appear in front of a board or committee on which he or she served.

“We shouldn’t restrict employment too much,” Mr. Wilson said.

“This is a judgment call,” he added, noting he values consensus among Board of Ethics members and all five members agreed this was important.

At the same time, he said if Town Board members felt differently, they should bring their own judgments to the forefront.

The newly adopted code similarly states for a one-year period after serving the Town, a person should not be allowed to communicate in any form on matters with any Town office, board, department or comparable organizational unit for which they served in connection with any particular matter involving the exercise of discretion.

At the same time, a former Town employee or volunteer may be allowed to represent himself or a relative or household member before the Town or assert a claim against the Town on their own behalf or on behalf of a relative or household member.

Another “major” issue the Ethics Board proposed involves disclosure or recusals involving any issue that could pose a conflict of interest for a Town employee.

An employee should disclose a possible conflict of interest to a supervisor. A member of a board or committee who previously was required to disclose the conflict to the Board of Ethics is now to acknowledge the conflict and have it included in the minutes of the meeting. Mr. Wilson said the Board of Ethics sought this more public disclosure as being more effective.

The Town Board agreed and the new law includes those practices.

The third change the Board of Ethics proposed involved gifts and the recommendation was to allow holiday gifts and birthday and wedding gifts. The new law that takes effect did not adopt that language.

Instead, the law provides that no officer or employee may solicit gifts or other benefits; or accept any gift or an aggregate of gifts having a value of $75 from the same donor in a 12-month period. The code defines gifts as money, property, services, a loan, travel, entertainment, hospitality or a promise in which it could reasonably be inferred it was intended to influence the receiver in the performance of his or her official duties.

The full law is available on the Town website.