[0:10] that would be my input and I would um I would much prefer

[0:15] not to get into a long drawn out thing because that will add to this meeting

[0:19] and Anthony said he's got to be out by 8 so I'm sure others have questions that's

[0:24] all I have good good comment yes yeah and

[0:30] commissioner Terrell yeah I I very much sincerely apologize for missing the last

[0:36] um planning one it's the only one I missed and um I had some comments to

[0:42] make about the open space and also tree preservation and um would I like should

[0:48] I just submit those in writing and then that can be just taken care of that

[0:52] way yeah and just so that will be the development code I just want to make

[0:56] sure that um we're dividing up these uh so uh there might be some uh General

[1:02] open space policies uh and maybe some policies on on uh tree preservation that

[1:09] uh are supportive of text amendments to the development code uh but for March 11

[1:16] um oh it's okay it will just the comprehensive plan the focus yeah okay

[1:21] yeah okay do should I still submit those comments about the code

[1:25] update uh yeah um I yeah better to to be there with the the council yeah I just

[1:33] biffed it was the only one I've missed the whole time and I was there for the

[1:38] other tree discussion but this one I yeah missed it sorry and there will be

[1:43] um I guess I'm sort of taking uh March what is it March 5th city council

[1:48] meeting just uh one more kind of work set but sort of a wrap up of just the

[1:53] things that what was identified at the last uh meeting there I think it was

[1:58] just like last week or so uh that uh some that people want a

[2:03] little bit more explanation on but we will have a hearings ready document very

[2:09] shortly here um so uh yeah we're just trying to fine tune as much as we can

[2:15] for the development code the development code hearing will be on April 8th that's

[2:19] the April 8th is the Planning Commission public hearing for the development code

[2:25] uh so yeah you're um that's right on the heels of the comprehensive plan hearing

[2:32] okay and so should I just submit those comments CCU send them to Shannon to Amy

[2:36] who should I send them to or I 3j uh Amy I think through the city is is better

[2:42] yeah yes please send them to you and you'll distribute them to whoever needs

[2:47] yeah thank you sh happily share yeah and I don't I like I said I don't have a lot

[2:51] but um I I was listening to it and um I think I was sort of mentioned in passing

[2:58] as being missing and I feel like I should add what the very

[3:03] brief comment I would have made thank you thank you for your

[3:08] service Susie and also sort of we've gotten the trip trickle down effect by

[3:12] Susie's continued uh attendance to that so I just appreciate your attendance in

[3:17] all those meetings and um yeah if we could get those documents ahead of time

[3:22] that would help us to be thoughtful uh participants thank you Scott thanks yeah

[3:28] is anything else happy to convey that but we'll we'll get the documents out as

[3:33] soon as possible nope thanks Scott appreciate it I just sent an email to

[3:38] Amy letting him know that uh letting her know that April 8th sadly I will um be

[3:44] out of the state and unavailable that day so uh that's gonna be a fun one

[3:48] Susie you get to be the chair that day apologies in advance okay well I

[3:54] I'll pay attention to what you do every day every time we meet before then and

[3:58] maybe I'll maybe I'll be able to handle we'll see I'll send you a picture of

[4:01] myself that you can kind of staple your for there you then you can you can just

[4:05] have everybody coming at me anyways excellent uh do we have any

[4:10] public citizen comments before we get into our training this is for items that

[4:15] are not on the agenda I see two individuals that uh are not

[4:19] Commissioners and I wanted to invite them for or do

[4:23] we just to heads up Chris Brewbaker is another trainer with the ethics

[4:28] Commission

[4:32] okay see hearing none and seeing none we'll proceed with our ethics training

[4:36] item 4B on our agenda Mr sparza the floor is yours Mr White have a good

[4:41] evening sir all right well now my Brady Bunch

[4:45] screen has now altered we've lost that one that one person had had an even

[4:51] thing there but that's all right so uh I'm going to share my screen because uh

[4:55] I'm giving a presentation here so I need to show y'all some stuff so it's let me

[4:59] get situated here for a

[5:03] sec let's see all

[5:10] right all right hang

[5:16] on right how's that look on your end does that look all right looks good I

[5:21] see a thumbs up awesome so just heads up Chris Brewbaker is also with the ethics

[5:26] commission um he's he's kind of one of the newer folks so he's sitting in he's

[5:30] going to answer what questions he has uh in the chat uh if he gets stuck he'll

[5:36] probably you know throw it back at me but here's the deal we're going to cover

[5:40] a lot of stuff uh as is uh as much as I'd love ethics to be really simple it's

[5:46] not it's very complex but uh my job here today is to kind of make this a little

[5:50] bit easier to uh take to take in so um forgive me if I get if I if I get

[5:57] repetitive on some things this just my attempt of trying to to kind of hammer

[6:01] the basics into your head um um You probably see on the screen my

[6:06] name's Charlie uh if you have a question um there's a few of us here so I don't

[6:12] mind you unmuting and ask me asking me but uh if you can hang on at at at all

[6:18] towards the very end because I'm probably as I move through here I'm

[6:21] probably going to be answering your questions um as I as I as I chop through

[6:25] this thing and just heads up we're going to be building so you're hear me say

[6:30] that quite a bit so uh that being said let's go ahead and and dive into this

[6:35] thing I'm going to take y'all's pictures out of here let me just make it a little

[6:39] smaller so I can see the thumbs up and stuff on my end and uh because I'll

[6:44] probably be asking you things if if this is okay or that okay so um let's go

[6:48] ahead and jump into this so the first thing is is uh the this commission the

[6:55] the legislative assembly of Oregon has determined that our role as a public

[6:58] official is one one of a public trust so one way to safeguard that public trust

[7:03] uh is by following the statutes in ORS 244 you're going to hear me say or s244

[7:07] a lot now don't worry you don't need to memorize that number okay it's just

[7:11] that's where we do all of our our world in the ethics part of the commission is

[7:16] all in OS s244 and that being said let me say that it's our responsibility as

[7:21] public officials to follow those statutes it's not our public body's

[7:25] responsibility it's us as individuals to make sure we follow them so so

[7:30] um and the things we're going to talk about is is pretty simple it's an

[7:34] overview so we're going to talk about uh using your uh position for financial

[7:39] gain uh what gifts are appropriate to accept and also we're going to Define

[7:44] what a conflict of interest is then how to handle that so how do we handle a

[7:48] conflict of interest so um again for us tonight is just going to be a review of

[7:55] the statutes we're not going to get into all the legal speak so um again my job

[8:00] is to make sure that I deliver this in a way that that's easier for people to

[8:05] understand so that being said if you do uh need to go to the statutes go to the

[8:10] statutes this is not legal advice I'm not a lawyer so uh the statutes are

[8:15] there uh if you need to go in deeper now here's here's the catch and this is

[8:20] something that we've been pressing really hard in the past

[8:24] year is that I I want yall to see the ethics commission as a resource so

[8:29] um reach out to us shoot us a message give us a phone call uh ask us questions

[8:35] we are a resource we're here for you folks okay so um let's just say for

[8:39] example you're in a situation and uh you don't want to go to the statutes or you

[8:44] go to statutes and you're like I'm lost in this legal speak world uh send me

[8:48] over to Charlie then of course of course you call us you just an email we will

[8:52] help you with that that's part of what we do is is making sure you folks uh uh

[8:56] stay within the statutes and and not find yourself in any any trouble so I

[9:01] know I'm I kind of look at like we're on the front end the training side we're on

[9:04] the front end we're on the proactive side um so that being said a little bit

[9:09] about the ethics commission we were created in 1974 and again this was to

[9:14] establish transparency in the Oregon government um there are nine citizen

[9:19] Commissioners uh they're the ones that uh kind of approve what we do when

[9:24] moving forward with uh investigations and things of that nature there's 15

[9:28] staff members and uh our jurisdiction is over

[9:32] three areas so uh I've got a funny one here to tell you here in a minute but

[9:37] the big one we're going to talk about today is rs44 again don't have to

[9:40] memorize that we also have legislation over Lobby law regulations basically

[9:44] just lobbyists have to register with Oregon and they have to file expenditure

[9:48] reports the other one's going to be the big one is public meetings law um this

[9:53] uh public meetings law is going to be required training for public officials

[9:57] it's going to be coming from us here's the big the big reveal it will

[10:01] not be ready until May or June at this point um the reason being is that

[10:08] um with the Attorney General's office uh they have to approve our training

[10:13] because this has been handed over to us and they want to make sure that we're

[10:16] delivering the proper material in the proper way um and so they're determining

[10:21] what that information is so that's where we're at right now so it's not like

[10:25] we're kind of trying to figure out we we we just open up the book and okay we'll

[10:28] start with this one and just keep on going but uh they're kind of like no we

[10:33] want we want something more specific so that's coming up um the reason my joke

[10:38] here was that this is our area of jurisdiction we get a lot of phone calls

[10:41] of people saying well you know hey uh uh they changed out the toilet paper in our

[10:46] bathroom that's an Ethics violation I know it is uh they went from good stuff

[10:50] to bad stuff do something about it well it's not our jurisdiction we get those

[10:55] those types of calls a lot so there's my little joke on on our jurisdiction so

[11:00] today uh the big ones we're going to hit is going to be use of office and it's

[11:04] not going to be in this order by the way use of office private employment uh

[11:08] conflicts of interest nepotism and gifts so we're going to do a deep dive in all

[11:12] these uh but you heard me say we're going to build right so we got to start

[11:16] off with some definitions so the first definition

[11:20] you're going to run to is a public official and so uh the way a public

[11:24] official is defined in ORS is that you if you serve the state a city a county

[11:31] or special district or any other public body you are a public official and this

[11:36] is whether you're compensated or not okay so when I you're compensated or not

[11:40] you folks probably are not compensated for being Commissioners so yeah there

[11:44] you go so guess what you know the answer to this already right you're sitting in

[11:48] this training you are a public official so um my first thought whenever uh I

[11:55] think of non-compensated public officials I always think of for some

[11:58] reason vol firefighter that's where my first my brain goes first all right so

[12:03] that's public official that's the easy one now we're going to do something that

[12:07] gets a we're going to change things up a little bit so uh relatives we all know

[12:12] who our relatives are in the real world okay that that's an easy one but in the

[12:17] statutes they Define it a little bit tighter so in the statutes it says it's

[12:21] your spouse it's your children your stepchildren it's your daughter-in-laws

[12:25] your sons-in-laws it's your parents your step parents it's your siblings and step

[12:29] siblings and it's your spouse's family so you notice some people are missing

[12:35] from this list um Grandma and Grandpa are

[12:39] missing your aunts and uncles are missing and your cousins are missing

[12:43] okay that's just a few off the top but um by the statutes when they talk about

[12:47] relatives this is it there's three more though we need to add to this so uh the

[12:53] first one is going to be a relative is anyone that you have a financial support

[12:59] obligation to all right uh the next one is going to be anyone that is benefiting

[13:07] from your employment so maybe they're on your healthare okay that's also a

[13:11] relative and also a relative is anyone that you may be benefiting from their

[13:15] employment okay so you may be on someone else's health care that's also a

[13:20] relative by the statutes all right so we got that out of the way everybody with

[13:24] me so far all right awesome thank you Susie all right so next one's going to

[13:30] be household members so this is where things get a little a little more

[13:34] complicated but again my job is to make this simple right so household member is

[13:38] anyone who is living in your home okay so this is a

[13:42] roommate uh this could be a significant other could be a best friend and then of

[13:47] course it could be you know your cousin an aunt or an uncle or your grandparents

[13:51] okay it's basically anyone living in your

[13:54] home all right so we got those out of the way now we're going to keep going

[13:58] going we're building so a business everyone knows what a business is but we

[14:02] have to Define it and the ORS it defines a business as

[14:07] any legal entity that's operated for economic gain okay so that's simple

[14:10] that's a that's a self-employed individual that's a sole proprietorship

[14:14] it's a partnership it's a corporation it's a firm uh a franchise an

[14:18] association that's a business all right next one's going to be an Associated

[14:24] business so this is where things get this is where things start getting a

[14:27] little complicated so the first one's going to be a private business so a

[14:32] private business is one that and we're going back to the definitions you your

[14:38] relative or a member of your household is a director and officer owner employee

[14:44] or agent of this private business okay this is a business that you're

[14:47] associated with or they own stock Equity interest stock options or debt intiments

[14:53] of $1,000 or more okay so this is this is how this looks okay so let's let's

[14:58] just say for example my daughter works as at a cashier at a local hardware

[15:02] store and we'll just say Smith is Smith Hardware I I use this example in every

[15:06] training so if you've heard it just just bear with me so um my daughter is

[15:12] cashier at Smith and Smith Hardware I am associated with that business because my

[15:17] daughter is an employee of that private business okay so that's how this works

[15:25] okay so you may take a moment and take inventory of who you're relatives are

[15:29] who your household members are and find out where they work and guess what if

[15:34] they fit in this in in this category up top then that is a business which you

[15:38] are associated with okay all right let's take it one step

[15:44] further all right a publicly heeld Corporation so that's that's a fancy way

[15:48] of saying this this is a business that's traded on the stock market okay so in

[15:52] order for you to be associated with a publicly Health Corporation you your

[15:57] relative or member of your household would have to be an officer or director

[16:01] of that Corporation or own stock Equity interest stock options or debt

[16:06] instruments of a $100,000 or more okay so let's take that example I gave you

[16:11] earlier my daughter is working at Smith and Smith Hardware it's a locally owned

[16:15] private privately owned business and she gets a job at Home Depot as a cashier

[16:21] well guess what Home Depot is not a business I'm associated with because she

[16:26] would have to be an officer director of that business for me to be associated

[16:30] with it okay so if she got promoted just say for example yeah they her cashier

[16:35] skills were great and they decide to Bumper up to officer or director then

[16:39] yes then I would be associated with Home Depot that would be a business I'm

[16:43] associated with okay of course also the stock options uh Equity interest debt

[16:48] instruments of $100,000 or okay so we got business business we're associated

[16:54] with now let's talk about what is not a business it's pretty simple but like

[16:58] again we have to Define it so public bodies are not businesses

[17:04] so your state agency your city your county your special district your school

[17:09] district the Oregon government ethics commission we are not businesses okay we

[17:13] are public bodies the other one and this is where we get tricky is a nonprofit

[17:18] 501c where you your relative or member of your household is in an unpaid

[17:23] capacity okay so that would be something like let's just say for examp let's

[17:29] bring my daughter into this let's just let's just run her through this okay

[17:31] let's say for example she serves on the board of the YMCA and uh which we all

[17:38] know YMCA is a nonprofit right she's on the board of a y of the YMCA and she's

[17:43] in an unpaid capacity it's still not a business I'm associated with okay let's

[17:48] just say for example uh she's a a member of the YMCA pays pays a membership fee

[17:54] is a member of the YMCA still not a business with which I'm associated with

[17:58] because she's not getting compensated all right but let's say for example uh

[18:04] along with being a board member in the Summer She uh she's paid to be a

[18:08] lifeguard okay well guess what at that point it is a business which I'm

[18:12] associated with because she is at that point collecting uh an hourly wage okay

[18:18] in that scenario okay everybody with me so far all right cool Susie speaking for

[18:24] all of y'all she's doing great by the way so it's I'm hope I'm if I lose Susie

[18:29] we're all lost okay all right so I'm G throw a question out at

[18:33] you uh give me a thumbs up thumbs down um Susie you're you're calling the shots

[18:38] here so your cousin is included in the Law's definition of a relative true or

[18:43] false yeah you got it that's pretty easy I'm I'm throwing softballs at here this

[18:48] is also telling me my training is working so awesome let's throw another

[18:51] one at you city council member is a public official true or

[18:56] false awesome all right I think we have a curveball in

[19:00] here oh yeah here it is we're gonna make you think for a minute the nonprofit you

[19:04] volunteer at serving lunch once a month is a business which you are associated

[19:09] true or

[19:13] false I'm getting I'm getting the headshake from manette in the no fashion

[19:18] but if you're not getting paid for it yeah so the catch here is you volunteer

[19:24] yeah and the business isn't a publicly own business correct

[19:29] so we're good so true or false so with that's okay yeah perfect

[19:38] awesome okay all right that was the easy part let's get into the tough

[19:43] stuff all right conflict of interest so we all know what a we've heard those

[19:49] words uh we were you I know you folks are probably very familiar with what a

[19:53] conflict of interest is but the training here is designed to kind of break this

[19:57] down on the simpl term so we're going to figure out what a conflict of interest

[20:01] is and I'm going to walk you through the steps of how to handle a conflict of

[20:04] interest all right so a conflict of interest is basically broken down in two

[20:11] categories potential or actual okay and so the way this kind of works the the

[20:17] the simple definition of of a of a conflict of interest

[20:21] is when you as a public

[20:25] official take some sort of action okay either a vote a recommendation or

[20:31] approval and that vote recommendation or or approval has a financial impact on

[20:39] specific people and that would be you your relatives or a business that you or

[20:44] your relatives are associated with okay so and that's that's about as simple as

[20:51] it gets and you're going to hear me say this over and over again so we we we get

[20:54] in our head so first one is uh it's broken down two parts actual potential

[20:59] so the actual one is when we talk about you as a public official taking some

[21:05] sort of action again that decision recommendation or approval with that

[21:10] with that action with certainty would have a financial impact on you your

[21:18] relatives or business that you are your relatives are associated with okay so

[21:24] what does that mean how how does this unfold okay so let me let me give you

[21:28] kind of a basic example let's just say um you're in charge of

[21:34] determining um who's going to do all the catering for all the City events for the

[21:40] next year okay and your father owns a catering

[21:47] business okay your father submits a bid for that particular

[21:55] job for that that role of being uh the cater for all the city's events for the

[22:00] next year okay so at this point you would have an actual conflictive

[22:06] interest because you are on the board that's deciding whether or not who's

[22:10] going to get this this contract and your father who is your relative who owns a

[22:16] catering business which is a business you are associated with has submitted a

[22:20] bid okay and you know that either approving or denying this bid is going

[22:26] to have a with certainty a financial effect on your father's catering

[22:32] business okay so the idea here is that the decision you make is with

[22:39] certainty going to have an effect on the business at your your father's catering

[22:43] business so that's an actual conflict of interest okay so the next one is going

[22:50] to be potential so potential it gets a little

[22:54] bit more muddy in this in this section so with a potential conflict of interest

[22:59] it's still that scenario where you the public official are taking some sort of

[23:04] action making a decision a recommendation or approval but this time

[23:08] it's unclear if let and let's go back to that

[23:12] example your father owning a catering business right so at this point you're

[23:16] just thinking of of bringing on or thinking of Contracting out a catering

[23:21] business you haven't really discussed it in depth but you're thinking about it

[23:26] and also your father uh who owns that catering business may

[23:30] or may not put in a bid at this point he doesn't even know about it and maybe

[23:34] You' said it in passing but he said you know what I I'm pretty good I think

[23:39] we're good for the year I may or may not depends on how things work so at this

[23:44] point it's a since it's just a possible Financial effect it's

[23:49] uncertain uh at that point it's potential okay so with potential it's

[23:55] always unclear it's not you can't see the financial gain or the the uh the

[23:59] financial detriment or the financial effect it's it's just not clear so

[24:04] that's where potential comes into play everybody with me so

[24:10] far all right okay all right so let me throw a scenario at

[24:14] you all right so you are reviewing and approving Grant applications government

[24:20] agencies colleges universities Public Schools public school districts and

[24:25] nonprofits are all eligible to apply the nonprofit your spouse works at has

[24:31] applied for the grant what I'll ask you first do you

[24:36] have a conflict of interest yes or no yes yes yes okay is it actual or

[24:41] potential actual all right so yes this is an

[24:47] actual conflict of interest all right good good call because the catch here is

[24:53] if you look at the at the final answer here nonprofit right

[24:58] but your spouse works there so they get they get a salary so there that

[25:02] Financial impact is for certain okay easy one all right let's let's change it

[25:07] up just a little bit all right your spouse serves on on the board of a

[25:12] nonprofit 51c corporation that has applied for the grant do you still have

[25:16] a conflict of interest potential you got it yep it's potential but actually you

[25:24] could you could go as far as saying no because

[25:28] uh your spouse serves on the board there's actually no Financial impact

[25:33] there at all so all right let's go one step further what if your spouse works

[25:38] for a school district as apply for a grant yes conflict of interest okay so

[25:46] let's think about that for a sec so remember a conflict of interest again my

[25:51] just be with me as I repeat is you're making a decision it's going to have a

[25:54] with have some type of financial effect on certain people okay in this case the

[25:59] school district is not a business okay so it bounces back to public body so you

[26:05] don't have a conflict of interest in this scenario because you're making a

[26:08] decision for a public body okay the decision is always going to be based

[26:13] upon uh the you your relative or business you're associated with so uh

[26:19] the idea here is that you're making decisions based on the school

[26:23] district ideally you're supposed to be making decisions on the school district

[26:27] um so this would not come into play as a conflict of

[26:30] interest everybody with me so far can I ask a question sure so the

[26:37] school district's applying for a grant so there's money

[26:41] involved yes I'm I'm not clear on why that's not a conflict of interest okay

[26:47] so just on the on the simplest terms the school district is not a business which

[26:53] you're associated

[26:56] with it's a school district it's a public body that's this that's simple as

[27:02] I can put it okay but the spouse works there

[27:06] yes but you're in a public body he's in a public or the spouse the person yes is

[27:12] in a public body and because they're both public bodies you got it okay thank

[27:19] you that's it that that's the one that everybody gets stuck on because they're

[27:22] just like well you know it's there's still a financial gain there yes for the

[27:27] School District it's not a business so the idea here is look if we if we break

[27:33] it down even simpler the idea here is you're not making decisions that's gonna

[27:37] uh be a financial gain for you personally or your relatives personally

[27:42] or their business the idea here is that it's the it's the school district yeah

[27:46] it isn't gonna line anybody's individual personal Pockets there you go I was

[27:50] gonna say that but I that's I I was trying to lean on that pretty hard but

[27:54] you got it so remember a conflict of interest is always going to be you as a

[27:58] public official uh making uh some type of decision that's going to have some

[28:02] type of financial impact on specific people okay so conflicts of interests

[28:07] exist okay that's that's that's a thing it happens it's it's it's not something

[28:12] that's like I have a conflict of interest I can't do this it it happens

[28:16] so there's steps you need to take so what if you are meant with a conflict of

[28:20] interest so if you're a board member a commissioner or elected official if it's

[28:25] a potential conflict of interest then you'll need to make that public

[28:29] announcement that you have a potential conflict of interest okay and you need

[28:32] to do this on each occasion before acting okay so let's go back to the yeah

[28:37] the father and the catering business okay so yeah you you're in a in a

[28:42] meeting and you're discussing uh the option for hiring a catering business

[28:47] for the year uh but you haven't really made any decisions yet that's the moment

[28:51] where you would step up and say um my father owns a catering business I have a

[28:55] potential conflict of interest uh each time this is brought up all right

[29:00] conflict it gets a little more specific I mean sorry actual conflict is where it

[29:04] gets a little bit more specific so at this point again you must make that

[29:07] Public Public Announcement uh on each occasion and at

[29:13] this point and we're talking now that you are actively looking for a catering

[29:17] business and your father has actually who the catering business actually put

[29:20] in a bid and at this point um you there's no participating discussion

[29:26] debate or voting okay so you have to step

[29:31] back all right so there is a catch to this though so the idea here is

[29:39] that if a public official's vote is necessary to meet

[29:45] Quorum then at that point you still make that Public

[29:49] Announcement but also you may not discuss or be part of the debate okay so

[29:54] you make that announcement yeah my father owns a catering business

[29:57] um I can't be part of this discussion and of course at that point you may vote

[30:03] okay the idea behind this provision is that Oregon government keeps moving

[30:09] forward okay so we don't get stuck behind uh not be able to make Quorum not

[30:15] be able to move forward this is is in here to provide that for you all

[30:21] right okay so conflicts of interest that was the hard one any questions for me on

[30:28] conflicts of interest what's

[30:32] up um so you know I I think in the past ethics change that I've had it's it's

[30:38] really it's as you said that that that the the business of whatever the entity

[30:42] is has to move forward but as long as you're transparent and you announce

[30:46] every time and you refrain from any participation then ethically you're

[30:51] covered absolutely yeah that's exactly it you know it's the idea here is that I

[30:58] mean when you when you start kind of again on simplest terms you know you

[31:03] don't want to be on the board and and have your you know your father's

[31:06] catering business doing all the catering your brother's construction business

[31:10] doing all the construction your your son's landscaping business doing all the

[31:14] Landscaping I mean that's that's kind of what's going on here so are you jumping

[31:19] ahead to nepotism oh my God little a little bit here here's the thing um we I

[31:26] I Tred to put this in all the in all the in all the trainings but they all

[31:30] overlap just a little bit I mean they all overlap

[31:35] so um so conflicts of interest that's easy let's go into use of office so use

[31:39] of office is basically you are prohibited from using your official

[31:46] position or your official uh use of office uh for financial gain or uh you

[31:54] also may not attempt to use your official position for financial gain or

[31:58] avoidance of financial detriment okay so this one expands a little bit further

[32:02] this one says this this applies to not only yourself your relative or a

[32:08] business that your uh that you or your relative are associated with but this

[32:12] goes further into household member okay so um and this could look like a lot of

[32:18] different things okay so this could look like um using an agency vehicle to run

[32:24] your personal errands on the clock okay it could be

[32:27] uh using the copy machine it could be uh parking your RV on County property um

[32:34] just because no one has told you you couldn't um the idea here is that you

[32:39] know you parking your RV on County property it may be in a back lot

[32:42] somewhere but you're avoiding those storage fees that you would have to pay

[32:45] somewhere else okay um um also you can't create an

[32:51] opportunity for yourself as well in your role as a public official so prohibiting

[32:56] Uso office again looks like a lot of different

[33:00] things but what you always want to ask yourself is do I only do I have this

[33:05] opportunity only because of my role as a public official and if the answer is yes

[33:10] then it's probably prohibited okay so um I mean we have tons of examples like

[33:17] these go

[33:20] ahead um I was going to say reflecting back on that too uh one of the other

[33:25] sort of decision points was would an average person in in the public

[33:31] sector have the same opportunity in other words could they Park their IV in

[33:36] the public works lot you know if the answer is no then that answers your

[33:40] question you yeah yeah it always goes back to do I myself only have this

[33:47] opportunity because of the position I hold and like I said it could be I mean

[33:51] these are things that that come to us quite a bit I mean things like uh we've

[33:56] had uh complaints where uh people were taking home uh pressure washers from

[34:04] from different public bodies you know maintenance facilities and pressure

[34:08] washing their home their driveways and doing their neighbors and then taking it

[34:11] back to work on on Monday morning leaf blowers um people taking home agency

[34:19] vehicles uh I mean there is a catch and we're going to talk about these in the

[34:23] next couple slides but just kind of always remember this opport is only

[34:27] available to you because of the position you hold and it's probably not allowed

[34:30] and so um this is one where a classic example of of reaching out to us if you

[34:37] have a a question or concern uh about something that you may be doing that you

[34:43] that that you may not think is allowed okay so we'll get into the exceptions

[34:46] here because this is kind of what we're alluding to so first one's going to be

[34:51] your official compensation package so your official compensation package I

[34:55] know everyone kind of thinks of okay well it's your salary it's your

[34:58] Healthcare it's your 401k but this could go further so depending on your public

[35:03] body they may actually have more for you and it may be something like to the

[35:07] effect of well if you work for the city you get to park for free on City on on

[35:12] the city lot okay everyone else has to pay but because you're a city a public

[35:16] official City employee then you are allowed to park in that lot for free

[35:20] that that may be part of your compensation

[35:24] okay so another one's going to be honorarium an honorarium is something

[35:28] that um you may have been given in return for like giving a speech or a

[35:33] presentation and this is something that there was no price set in the beginning

[35:36] you you gave a speech a presentation you you you showed up and spoke to a group

[35:40] of people and afterwards they uh they wanted to give you a certificate or a

[35:45] plaque or they wanted to give you a gift card that's allowed just make sure that

[35:50] um you're aware that there is a $50 limit on

[35:53] that and then reimbursements again this go goes back to uh if your public body

[35:59] allows reimbursements for certain things so this may be uh for example

[36:05] uh um if you had to pay upfront to go to a conference uh and the public body has

[36:11] agreed to reimburse you for those registration fees or in my case I travel

[36:17] sometimes uh I'm allowed to see reimbursement for my meals so uh just

[36:22] make sure that uh the reimbursements is something that your public body has

[36:26] agreed to and when I say agreed to it's in writing so this is always going to be

[36:30] in writing all right go a little bit

[36:33] further uh unsolicited unsolicited professional Achievement Award this is

[36:37] going to be something like uh winning the teacher of the year award or maybe

[36:41] you won the Nobel Prize okay these are allowed okay um don't confuse them with

[36:49] appreciation Awards this is one acknowledging your role as a

[36:52] profession and then a legal expense trust fund contribution so this this is

[36:56] something that's set up through US basically what it is it's a trust fund

[37:00] to help pay for any legal fees that a public official May incur in their role

[37:06] as a public official um heads up there's I believe there's one account with us

[37:12] and it's not even active so that tells you how popular this item is um from

[37:18] what I've been told it's it's very complicated it's not easy and it's set

[37:22] up through us so I was told if anyone has uh questions or concerns about this

[37:27] reach out to us uh and we can walk you through that all right so let me throw a

[37:33] scenario at you and just tell me the number I'll I'll read them out and just

[37:36] yell the number out at me uh using your which is which one is the violation so

[37:40] using your agency's open wi-fi network on a personal device during breaks

[37:45] number two picking up your spouse from the airport and Acy

[37:49] vehicle uh number three taking home Surplus computer equipment that was

[37:53] going to be thrown out anyway or number four accepting a gift

[37:58] card for being a speaker at an event so what do you think I see two two

[38:06] yeah two is easy and I see a three okay all right so let me run through them

[38:10] real quick so yeah the first one that's that's a no-brainer right you're using

[38:14] your agency's open wi-fi so anyone can get on it on your personal device on

[38:19] your break no violation there number two obvious you're using the agency vehicle

[38:24] to pick up respon from the airport a gas if you're doing on the clock it's agency

[38:28] time that's that's all I no no so number three taking home Surplus computer

[38:32] equipment that was going to be thrown out anyway this goes back to is this

[38:37] opportunity to take this computer uh computer equipment home only available

[38:42] to me because of my role as a public official and so this is totally that

[38:46] scenario so the idea here is when it comes to uh in this scenario you would

[38:51] either need depending on your public body's policy or procedure it would

[38:56] either either need to be turned into Surplus and at that point you can go to

[38:59] the Surplus and buy it there or uh set it out in the lobby if you

[39:05] have a Lobby and put a free sign on it um maybe post it on your website uh but

[39:11] the idea here is that as long as the public has an opportunity to purchase

[39:16] this equipment um then it would not be a violation but in this case it would be

[39:20] so yall did good on that one number four we already know that one $25 gift card

[39:24] for a speaker round vent that would fall under

[39:28] honorarium all right so remember prohibited gains is always going to be

[39:32] uh not just that Financial benefit but also avoid an expense

[39:37] so this is even if it does not result in any cost of the public

[39:42] body all right so this is this is level one so I'll throw a question out at

[39:49] you and tell me what you think all right your public body has an

[39:54] account that gets a 50% discount at local hardware store while doing your

[39:59] personal shopping you ask for the public body's discount have you violated ethics

[40:04] law I'm seeing the nods yeah absolutely okay yeah because that opportunity to

[40:09] get that 50% discount is only there because your public body has a discount

[40:14] there yeah you can't do it uh one one thing that's come up in the past was

[40:18] well what if I use my own credit card and I don't use the discount but I get

[40:24] the points okay so if you're purchasing

[40:28] things for your public body and your public body is reimbursing you and

[40:31] you're keeping those points then yeah that would be that would be a

[40:36] violation all right any questions for me so

[40:40] far how's the pace am I moving too

[40:45] fast okay thumbs up awesome all right so again you heard me say these things

[40:50] overlap now we get into private deployment so you heard me say already

[40:56] that uh a lot of public officials like yourselves are are not uh are not

[41:03] compensated by your public body okay so that means that you probably have a some

[41:09] you work for someone or you have your own business and that's perfectly fine

[41:12] we get that that's okay the idea here though is that you can't create an

[41:18] opportunity for your private employer or for your business in your role as a

[41:22] public official so you have to make sure that

[41:26] there is clear distinction between your role in your private employment and your

[41:31] role as a public official and that you do not create opportunities uh for your

[41:38] private business or your employer in your role as a public official okay so

[41:43] this is either directly or indirectly um the idea here is that uh this is the

[41:50] example that came up in in one of our trainings was um well let's say I own a

[41:55] I own a t-shirt printing business and uh on the side uh would it be all right for

[42:00] me to suggest that we all get matching printed T-shirts and uh I mean I'll put

[42:06] in a bid doesn't mean I'll get it but I'll put in a bid well yeah no you just

[42:12] you not only have you violated the prohibited use of office but you know

[42:16] you're also skating on that conflict of interest issue as well so um so how they

[42:22] kind of draw the line in this is that you want to make sure that you use no

[42:27] governmental body time uh you use no governmental body

[42:33] resources that includes your fellow employees too you can't go over to like

[42:38] for example we have uh we have a lawyer on staff and so I can't go to her and

[42:43] say hey uh you know can you help me out with this contract I'm trying to get

[42:47] that that wouldn't work either so uh no official action that would financially

[42:50] impact your business uh no confidential information

[42:54] obtained and then and disclose all conflicts of interest now I just want to

[42:59] back up a moment this this is not just you this is you your relative a member

[43:05] of your household or a business that you or your relative or member of your

[43:09] household is associated with all right everybody with me so far

[43:15] all right awesome okay so next one's going to be employment and contracts and

[43:20] so this one comes up from time to time as well so uh the idea here is that you

[43:26] as a public official if you played a significant role in authorizing a

[43:30] contract then you cannot work under that contract from a period of two years from

[43:35] date of authorization okay so what does that mean well that just means that

[43:40] let's say for example Your Role is a public official uh you played a

[43:45] significant role in authorizing a contract and that's a that's a broad

[43:48] term by the way when they say significant role it's not just you

[43:51] signed it maybe you were on a selection committee for vendors or uh or or

[43:56] selecting a contractor executing a contractor recommending approval there's

[44:00] my serving on a selection committee maybe you were just pricing vendors okay

[44:05] if you played a significant role in that contract then uh you are restricted from

[44:10] working under that same contract for a period of two years so what does that

[44:14] mean okay let's say for example

[44:18] um uh you you you're part of this contract and uh you've signed on this

[44:25] company and the company come back and said hey uh you know I know you're on

[44:30] the planning board of uh the city of Carlton uh we really could use a um

[44:37] project manager on this new contract we were just awarded I know you had a hand

[44:41] in it and I'd like you to to hire you uh come on board and help us with this

[44:46] since you know the inner workings of what's going on here um uh of course

[44:52] that's nice of them but for us ethics involved it'd be a per period of two

[44:56] years so um once those two years passes then if they still need that project

[45:01] manager then yeah you could move on then but um it would be a violation if you

[45:06] did otherwise okay so or if you did it within that twoe PS

[45:12] to your stretch all right everybody with me so

[45:16] far okay all right so let me throw a trick question at

[45:21] you all right and this is a tricky one I didn't talk about it I think yall

[45:26] already have a handle on this so in addition to your role as a public

[45:29] official you also own your own business can you promote your business by posting

[45:34] flyers in the agency breakroom I see a big big no from Anette

[45:39] okay so here's the deal with this training this this is this training was

[45:43] put in place before I came on board and so it's a total like got you question

[45:49] because the correct answer because there's polling involved when when when

[45:53] I host the trainings um I have access to to polling questions in the training and

[45:58] and the idea here is no you would not be able to okay

[46:03] unless that bulletin board it was in the break room and that break room was open

[46:07] to the public okay so that's when you do the polling yeah right it's like all

[46:13] right so yeah um yeah the idea here is yes you could post it if the area is

[46:19] open to the public okay so that's the catch remember if if the opportunity if

[46:23] the opportunity is available to the public then it's not a violation or

[46:27] prohibited use of office all

[46:31] right any questions on that wow okay I'm gonna throw another

[46:39] one at you all right your public body contracts

[46:44] with a consulting firm your spouse is recently employed by this firm but does

[46:48] not work on agency related projects would you have a conflict of

[46:53] interest if a Contracting matter involving the firm came before

[46:57] you what do you

[47:02] think oh you're you're you're muted andette I I saw you looks like you said

[47:07] something potential all right interest okay let me

[47:12] ask you this why potential because he's not working on

[47:16] any agency related projects I I like where you're going with this but this is

[47:23] actual because you're spouse is employed by the

[47:27] firm and is a business which you are associated with doesn't matter what

[47:32] department your spouse works at they are that is a business which you're

[47:37] associated with so it doesn't matter if if um if they uh work in let's say the

[47:44] mail room or if they're on the board or if they're a clerk the idea here is it's

[47:51] still a business you're associated with regardless of of what department

[47:58] actually it's yeah it's the third little uh bullet or the third it's not a

[48:02] paragraph but the third item there that actually spells that out and I I kind of

[48:07] breezed on through that so that was me yep it's okay these are all trick

[48:11] questions some of them are easy some of them are tough they and I and I I have

[48:16] to say I'm just smiling to myself because I recently retired a couple

[48:21] years ago from the county and had so many of these and I I've

[48:26] dealt with a few people there at the ethics commission with a lot of these

[48:31] with yo County officials so it's it's kind of an interesting little little

[48:36] evening here yeah I I thought I see your name on the on the thing here anette's

[48:40] iPad I was like that sounds familiar I think we've seen your name do we have a

[48:45] conflict of interest oh my

[48:49] gosh stop talking all right awesome okay so uh any

[48:55] questions so far all right let's go ahead and move

[48:59] into nepotism like you said these all over overlap a little bit right so a

[49:05] nepotism the nepotism rules apply to and you saw these definitions earlier right

[49:09] it's going to be relatives it's also going to be household members okay so in

[49:15] general nepotism and I'm going to give you the long drwn out version and I'm

[49:18] GNA give you my version of it um in general the way it works is a public

[49:24] official uh cannot directly engage in the personal employment by our public

[49:31] body that would impact the employment of a relative or a member of your

[49:37] household so what does that mean that means you cannot participate in the uh

[49:43] interview discussion or um or debate in any public body that

[49:49] would affect the employment of your the a relative or member of your household

[49:53] so this includes uh appointing employing promoting discharging firing or

[50:00] demoting okay and for me it's easy the way I think of it

[50:04] is as a public official you can't participate in the hiring or firing

[50:10] promoting or demoting of a relative or member of your household that's that's

[50:14] the simple way to to put it now it goes a little bit further you also can't

[50:20] participate in the interview process the discussion um or debate too again you

[50:26] can't be part of the hiring firing promoting or demoting okay so not only

[50:34] can you not do that you can't be part of the discussion either so um now here's

[50:38] the catch unless your public body has something in place that allows it okay

[50:44] so we already know in Oregon there's a lot of small towns not a whole lot of

[50:49] folks and if there's a policy that allows it then we want you need to make

[50:53] sure that it's in writing

[50:58] all right it goes one step further okay so you cannot uh directly

[51:05] supervise uh your U household member or uh I'm sorry your relative or member of

[51:11] your household so even if they work there you can't supervise them at all

[51:15] okay again unless your public body has uh policies in

[51:21] place all right so scratch that now if there're a unpaid volunteer then yeah

[51:27] you are totally allowed to uh supervise and participate in any hiring firing

[51:33] promoting and demoting if they're volunteers so that that's where uh they

[51:37] kind of draw the line if they're they're pay that's one set of rules if they're

[51:41] volunteers it's another set of rules now let me take a moment to just back up for

[51:45] a sec because on the on the supervision part of nepotism um it does say that you

[51:53] are allowed uh to supervise uh a relative or member of your household in

[52:00] ministerial acts okay so they can make copies they can uh they can send out the

[52:07] mail uh they can handle fax machines if y'all are still using a fax uh filing

[52:12] small things like that that's

[52:16] allowed all right any questions so far yeah I see one go ahead how about um

[52:22] Financial oversight of their Department

[52:28] oh that's a good [Music]

[52:31] question and that's one I have not had that

[52:36] question so what I'm going to do is I'm writing this

[52:44] down because I haven't had that question so I always defer to um you can't you

[52:51] know hire fire promo or demote but you also can't directly supervise

[52:55] but you're talking now about um as I'm thinking about now you're if you're

[53:00] making that Financial oversight it it might it it just right

[53:05] off the top this is just my opinion but right off the top it sounds like it's

[53:09] going back to if you're making decisions that's going to affect the public body

[53:13] then that's not a business which you're associated with so it's probably going

[53:18] to go back to that but I don't like giving you the wishy-washy answer I like

[53:22] double-checking things so uh let me do this I I'll hit Amy up tomorrow and I'll

[53:28] shoot everyone an email with an answer to that question so that we're we're all

[53:31] on the same page that's a good question though I've not had that one all right

[53:36] so here's I'm GNA quiz you real quick all right so choose all that apply

[53:41] nepotism rules apply to your a cousins B children C

[53:48] roommates D parents e grandparents F foster children

[53:58] and this is just on the service we're not going to get into the whole you know

[54:02] the gray area who may be living in your household this is strictly based upon uh

[54:08] the statutes what do y'all think tell me the

[54:13] two that wouldn't count how's that we'll make it

[54:15] easier you think I gave it a unless they're living with you

[54:22] correct and you know it could be D or E unless

[54:28] they're living with you oh wait a minute no parents were included but

[54:31] Grandparents were not right you got it but foster children okay so grandparents

[54:38] are are not unless they're living with you and if they're your foster children

[54:42] you're gonna assume they're living with you but they could be your adult foster

[54:45] children so okay so yeah in in general foster

[54:49] children yes would be a member of your household so um you got it so by the by

[54:55] the definitions we saw earlier um as a relative or member of

[55:00] your household in that scenario cousins and grandparents they don't count okay

[55:06] it doesn't mean we don't love them they just they don't count in the

[55:09] statutes okay any questions so

[55:15] far all right so uh I keep saying this but um gifts I say I keep saying this in

[55:22] a lot of trainings gifts is the toughest one

[55:25] I I think conflicts of interests is Pretty Tough PR use of office it's okay

[55:30] but gifs is a tough one because

[55:33] um there's so many different scenarios in which a public official will receive

[55:37] a gift okay so we have to kind of break this down and just let me give you heads

[55:43] up your acceptance of the gift is always going to depend on your role as a public

[55:49] official and your decision-making Powers okay so um on the surface uh just

[55:55] remember also with gifts it's us as individuals as public officials to be

[56:00] responsible for what what we accept as far as gifts are concerned so it is our

[56:06] responsibility so first thing is is what a GI what is a gift and this is the

[56:10] statutes definition I know what a gift is okay I know when someone's giving me

[56:14] something but the idea here is um we have to Define it for the purpose of the

[56:20] training and the statute so first thing it says is GI to something of economic

[56:24] value all right it's given without equivalent

[56:29] payment and it's given to a public official a relative or household

[56:34] member and it's not offered to others on the same terms and conditions so I'm

[56:39] kind of like okay you just made a gift all weird and I don't understand what's

[56:42] going on here so here's here's how I break it down so if a local coffee shop

[56:47] is sending out mailers for a buy one get one free coffee and it's they're sending

[56:52] out to everyone that lives in the city is is it a

[56:56] gift it's a coupon yeah it's a coupon it's it's a mailer it's going out to

[57:01] everyone yeah it's it has some value you're buying one coffee and you get

[57:03] another one free but it's offered to everyone in the city okay now if I go

[57:08] into that same coffee shop on my own and I go to buy a cup of coffee and the

[57:12] manager says hey that's Charlie he's with the ethics commission hey this

[57:15] coffee is on me is it a gift absolutely it's a gift okay because

[57:22] at this point it's only offered to me he's only buying me the cup of coffee it

[57:26] is worth value right it's given to me without that equivalent payment and even

[57:31] if even if my spouse goes in or one of my Rel a relative or member my hous girl

[57:35] goes in and gets that same free cup of coffee then it's a gift okay so that's

[57:42] how I kind of break it down if is something that's given to you it's worth

[57:45] something they're only giving it to you you're not making an equivalent payment

[57:48] for it then it's absolutely gift if it's offered to others on the same terms and

[57:52] conditions not a gift so we got gift out of the way we kind of hinted at what is

[57:56] not a gift it's basically this first thing is your official compensation okay

[58:04] so remember this is Broad right so this isn't just your salary and your 401k or

[58:09] your um your health care this includes anything else that your your public body

[58:14] compensates you with and that's that free parking downtown uh

[58:19] maybe maybe they let let you take the vehicle home if you have uh overnight

[58:24] travel you get back into town late that's allowed just make sure that's in

[58:27] writing anything else your public body gives you as far as compensation that's

[58:31] in writing that's not a gift also if it's available to the public okay

[58:37] so one of the things we talk about a lot in here and what we get a lot of

[58:42] questions about are Swag Bags and I just found out uh when I came on with the

[58:46] ethics commission I knew what a swag bag was but I didn't know what the

[58:49] definition of it was swag bag is stands for stuff we all get I did not know this

[58:56] so uh I learned something new but here's my scenario since I brought it up your

[59:02] agency sending you to a conference attendees of the event consist of

[59:06] colleagues stakeholders vendors and members of the general

[59:10] public a a vendor at the event is handing out a free swag

[59:15] bag all right so we have to kind of analyze this a little bit I can already

[59:19] tell you right now if it's being offered to members of the general public then I

[59:23] could probably hang on to that swag bag but we have to go to this

[59:27] analysis so is it something of economic value all right so you open up the swag

[59:32] bag Swag Bags usually what sunglasses uh a stress squeeze thing

[59:38] something that lights up a keychain a lanyard uh may not be much but it is

[59:42] worth something um is it given to you an an

[59:45] official a public official relative or member of your household is he given

[59:49] without equivalent payment we're not going to get into the whole well maybe

[59:52] it's part of my registration fees a part of the entry fee we're just going to say

[59:56] the entry fee was the entry fee they're handing these out you can take it or not

[1:00:00] take it of course is it not offered to others so when it comes to Swag Bags um

[1:00:09] the idea here is you really have to sit back and see who the item first off the

[1:00:13] conference what what are who's attending this conference and then who's handing

[1:00:16] out that free swag bag so uh the way they break this down is here's my

[1:00:20] example for you so your agency is sending you to a conference

[1:00:25] attendees of the event consist of public officials

[1:00:29] only a vendor at the event is handing out a free swag bag so what do y'all

[1:00:35] think of this scenario got off top yeah see thumbs down right so yeah and

[1:00:41] someone told me they're like well the public can go to anything they want not

[1:00:44] necessarily okay so I mean if it's a if it's a conference for U City Auditors

[1:00:51] then odds are the public isn't want to I'm mean sure they can go to that but

[1:00:55] obviously it's it's it's geared towards City Auditors okay so that's primarily

[1:01:00] who who that conference is geared towards so if they're handing out a free

[1:01:04] swag bag this is where we get in that that spot we have to kind of analyze

[1:01:08] things before we can accept it so we need to know who the source of

[1:01:13] the gift is and the source is always going to be

[1:01:16] the ultimate payer of the gift do they have a legislative or administrative

[1:01:20] interest in my decision making as a public official that's distin from the

[1:01:24] general public and last part is what is the

[1:01:28] valuee okay so that's that's your your first set of question so let's break

[1:01:33] this down a little bit further so the gift source so the gift Source you heard

[1:01:38] me say is the ultimate payer of the expense okay and it is our

[1:01:42] responsibility to know the source's identity okay so

[1:01:47] [Music] um if we don't know the source's

[1:01:50] identity then what do we do okay let's just say we go to our office and there's

[1:01:55] a a gift basket U full of really great stuff um and on on it there's just a

[1:02:03] note saying hey thanks for the job you do and this actually happened at at a at

[1:02:07] a public body where someone left a note saying hey we appreciate the work you do

[1:02:11] for the community uh here's a thank you they had no idea who it came from well

[1:02:15] so as a public official as an individual you can't accept that because you don't

[1:02:19] know who the source is and let's just say that gift basket was way over the GI

[1:02:24] amount we'll talk about that here in a second so anytime you offered a gift

[1:02:27] that's Anonymous um you need to either and you can't find out who it is yeah I

[1:02:34] see the thumbs down right so there's two ways to handle this um either accept it

[1:02:38] on behalf of the public body okay so uh you know just throw it in the break room

[1:02:44] open it up tell everyone have at it or uh you can take that gift and donate it

[1:02:49] just make sure that you don't accept the tax benefit from that donation okay okay

[1:02:55] right and so again I'm building here so this is the first part so let's go to

[1:02:59] the next part so we need to know who the source is so the next one is do they

[1:03:05] have a legislative or administrative interest in me as a public official so

[1:03:10] that means that they have an economic interest meaning that uh they are going

[1:03:14] to be affected by the decisions I make as a public official okay and that

[1:03:20] decision is distinct from that of the general public Okay so

[1:03:25] uh let me back up a moment years ago I say in a past life I was a state

[1:03:29] inspector and um really didn't have that much I didn't feel like I had that much

[1:03:34] decision- making but U as an inspector I was offered lunches by those folks that

[1:03:41] I was inspecting so when you start to think about it that way it's kind of

[1:03:45] like well wait a minute yeah I do have actually some decision making involved

[1:03:49] in my work I could pass or fail their facilities and me passing or failing

[1:03:55] their facilities means either money they're going to have to spend or money

[1:03:59] they're not going to have to spend and so them buying me lunch they have an

[1:04:05] interest in decisions I make okay so um and so we get asked us a lot they're

[1:04:11] kind of like well wait a minute you know uh can I accept this gift and we always

[1:04:15] go back to well do they have a legislative or administrative interest

[1:04:20] in the decisions you make and so that's really again up to us as the public

[1:04:24] official to determine we have to sit back for a moment and go okay so uh you

[1:04:29] know that lunch for our director yes absolutely that same lunch for say

[1:04:35] someone in our training department maybe not so much because uh they're not going

[1:04:40] to the effects the training groups uh the training folks do isn't going to

[1:04:44] affect them so it would it would change depending on your role as a public

[1:04:48] official based upon uh your decision- making all right so so you are allowed

[1:04:55] to accept gifts from those that have a legislative or administrative interest

[1:04:59] it's allowed okay but there's a limit okay and that limit is uh you must not

[1:05:05] exceed $50 in a calendar year and that's from January to December okay so if we

[1:05:10] go back to that scenario of me being an inspector in that past life um yeah they

[1:05:15] could buy me lunch but I'd be restricted to that $50 in the calendar year so um

[1:05:21] someone said well that's that's a lot of donuts or that's a I'm like yeah but

[1:05:26] here here's the thing uh it's uh for me G for me in that past role uh I didn't

[1:05:32] get any lunches from anyone because it just didn't feel right um that just it

[1:05:36] just didn't feel right so um but yes you are allowed just be aware of that of

[1:05:43] that restriction so um for us as public officials this also includes inside the

[1:05:49] office so another way to kind of play this out in the office is um

[1:05:54] those of us I'm gonna say down here on the bottom because I'm I'm a trainer I

[1:05:58] have folks above me uh I have an interest in the decisions that our

[1:06:02] director makes okay I have a decision I have interest in possibly getting a

[1:06:07] raise a promotion uh so uh my director would have to restrict the amount of

[1:06:14] gifts that I give them okay so why because that legislative or

[1:06:20] administrative interest is there so they have to step back and go wait a minute

[1:06:24] um I can accept gifts there that restriction comes into play right I can

[1:06:28] accept gifts but we have to cap it at $50 okay now let's flip it

[1:06:33] around our directors uh above us or those folks that are above us in the

[1:06:39] decision-making realm can shower us with gifts all day long Okay the reason being

[1:06:44] is that there's nothing I have no decision- making uh uh uh power over um

[1:06:51] anything my director does okay so that's that's kind of how that works or or My

[1:06:55] co- or my co-workers on the same level okay so I can't I can't offer anyone a

[1:07:00] promotion or raise or or give them time off I I just don't have that power so

[1:07:06] gifts amongst coming down and amongst employees all day long we're good to go

[1:07:10] just remember it always applies going up so just kind of think about that if

[1:07:15] anyone's getting you a gift and uh you're going to have to stop and make

[1:07:19] that that uh that analyze that for a moment all right right so now we're

[1:07:25] going to get into the gift exceptions so heads

[1:07:28] up there are a ton of gift exceptions uh just a ton of them so um there's 16 of

[1:07:38] them to be exact in the statutes we're only going to hit a few today I had to

[1:07:43] cut some of them out because uh I know that I was told that y'all really want

[1:07:48] to talk about some SEI stuff so I I saved room for that okay so that's going

[1:07:53] to be our dessert so um not a good dessert but in dessert all right so gift

[1:07:58] exceptions there's 16 of them heads up we have a on hour training that talks

[1:08:03] about all this stuff so we do a deep dive in the Standalone training it's one

[1:08:09] hour just about gifts alone all right so the first one is

[1:08:14] relatives so again by the statute definition um you can exchange gifts

[1:08:19] amongst relatives all day long not a problem

[1:08:25] um an unsolicited token or award so this is where we start getting that

[1:08:29] appreciation award or um just a uh just a just an award for the sake of giving

[1:08:36] you an award for just being an awesome person and this is allowed the idea here

[1:08:40] is that whatever that item is the resale value is expect to be less than

[1:08:45] $25 okay so it just heads up if your name's engraved on it that typically

[1:08:50] knocks it down to that $25 mark But there is a cat okay so if it's if it's a

[1:08:56] plaque and it comes with a crystal vase or a gold watch or um a uh uh something

[1:09:06] that's goes beyond that $25 amount uh then you're going to be restricted from

[1:09:12] accepting it okay unless it can be separated okay unless that unless that

[1:09:16] plaque can be kept you give the vase back or or if they give you the plaque

[1:09:20] and a watch and you give the watch back uh that would be allow you keep the

[1:09:25] plaque all right next one's going to be a food and beverage exception so this is

[1:09:29] one where you as a public official all these next scenarios is going to be you

[1:09:34] as a public official representing your public body and you're attending a

[1:09:39] public event where other public officials are attending the public is

[1:09:43] allowed the event is publicized and part of this is a

[1:09:48] reception where there's either a lunch or a dinner this is allowed okay

[1:09:54] don't confuse it with a private dinner if someone's there and they say hey

[1:09:57] let's skip this dinner I want to take you out the let's grab something

[1:10:00] different uh then that would be that would fall back under the private dinner

[1:10:05] would be falling under the gift Provisions so uh but here again

[1:10:11] representing your public body as a public official members of the public

[1:10:15] are allowed to attend lunch or dinner that's

[1:10:18] allow same scenario you as a public official except we knock this down a

[1:10:22] little bit you as a public official again representing your public body uh

[1:10:27] and you're at a meeting or an event and there's incidental entertainment or

[1:10:32] maybe there's donuts and coffee uh muffins those are allowed as well it's

[1:10:38] considered incidental so just remember anytime you offered a gift it's it's our

[1:10:44] responsibility as public officials determine whether or not we can accept

[1:10:48] them so um we always have to analyze it is it something of economic value did

[1:10:53] did I make an equivalent payment is it offered to others on the same terms and

[1:10:58] conditions and then the curveball here is does it do any of the exceptions

[1:11:04] apply and so uh once you break that down then you have to analyze whether or not

[1:11:10] you can accept it and so uh then you have to determine who the source of the

[1:11:15] gift is uh and do they have a legislative or administrative interest

[1:11:19] in my role as a public official my decision-making capacities and of course

[1:11:24] is it within the $50 limit and then of course if you've

[1:11:29] accepted anything else from them in the past year right in the past calendar

[1:11:32] year all right throw I'm gonna throw a question

[1:11:37] out at you and tell me what you think okay get ready it's confusing I don't

[1:11:41] like this question but it again they were designed to make you think a little

[1:11:46] bit all right the local JY is offering a discount on a monthly membership to

[1:11:53] employees of your public body daycare providers healthcare workers First

[1:11:59] Responders and grocery store workers in your

[1:12:03] community can you accept the gift without violating ethics law what do you

[1:12:11] think yes I'm seeing a nod so yeah the answer is yes because

[1:12:16] it's it is offered to others that are not public officials okay so the the the

[1:12:22] the catch here would be if a local gym was only offering it to

[1:12:27] uh planning board Commissioners for the city of Carlton that was

[1:12:32] it then yeah you guys probably have to stop back and either either go into

[1:12:37] Cahoots with each other and I'll join or play it safe and say no okay the answer

[1:12:42] the correct answer to that is no okay so but but wait even if it was I mean even

[1:12:47] if we all decided to join that still wouldn't be okay because no it wouldn't

[1:12:51] that was that was my that was my sad attempt at making a joke okay it would

[1:12:56] not if y'all all are in cahoots then yeah no it still wouldn't be then we're

[1:13:00] already in violation yeah you're already in violation so yeah all right in fact

[1:13:06] here's here's this happens quite a bit not so much local Jam but we get a lot

[1:13:10] of questions because cell cell phone providers or cell service providers

[1:13:15] offer a lot of discounts to City and County employees and so we've had this

[1:13:20] come across to us hey can we accept this and it always comes back to well it

[1:13:26] depends uh you know is it being offered is it being offered to others in the

[1:13:31] community okay is it is it is it being offered to you but you but is it off

[1:13:35] being also being offered to others as well okay and if it is then that opens

[1:13:40] it up to accepting it but then it comes down to no it's just city employees or

[1:13:45] no it's just County Employees well then it's going to be P based upon well what

[1:13:49] is your role as a public official are you on um

[1:13:54] are you part of the folks that determines whether or not the city gets

[1:13:58] a who they go through for their sell provider or are you just someone that uh

[1:14:03] you know I have I'm not I can't decide on whether or not the city goes with

[1:14:07] this particular self provider um then you may be able to accept it but those

[1:14:11] folks that uh could make a decision that could impact that self self self service

[1:14:16] provider uh then those folks probably have to sit back and determine whether

[1:14:20] or not they could take it so again it goes back to your role as a public

[1:14:24] official and your decision making and that decision- making would affect that

[1:14:30] particular vendor or this this the source of the gift and would it have an

[1:14:35] impact on them yeah so there there's you know everyone always says oh gifts it's

[1:14:41] easy you know we say yeah it's easy don't accept them that's it's pretty

[1:14:46] much all right so I told you I saved the best for last so what is a statement of

[1:14:53] economic interest okay we're we're coming up on that season by the way so

[1:14:59] uh um right now uh we're we're we're talking to a lot of jurisdictional

[1:15:06] contacts we're doing jurisdictional contact training for those folks uh are

[1:15:11] y'all familiar with who the jurisdictional contact is with your

[1:15:14] district with your David are you talking about David Hunter

[1:15:19] our folks or okay yeah David is so there should be someone at your in your at

[1:15:26] your city that's kind of the liaison between uh the city and David David's

[1:15:31] with the o with us at the ethics commission basically what it is with the

[1:15:35] jurisdictional content they basically tell us who who are the seci followers

[1:15:39] in the district because we have no idea with all the cities uh in in Oregon

[1:15:44] cities counties all the other districts that are involved but let me break this

[1:15:49] down again let's let's break out the definitions so a statement of economic

[1:15:55] interest is something that is a public official is required to file and so

[1:16:00] there's a whole list of public officials in LS

[1:16:05] 244.50 so if you're wondering uh do I need to file uh you

[1:16:12] would look up your role as a public official in

[1:16:16] 244.50 uh to get that it's a ton of folks it's a ton so um

[1:16:23] and the idea here is that uh you provide us with your financial sources now let

[1:16:28] me be clear on something it is not your financial income we're not looking at

[1:16:36] the dollar amount it's just who your source of income is so everyone has a

[1:16:40] source of income okay so um you know if you're if you're retired your your

[1:16:45] source of income is social security okay um I work for ogek if I had to file my

[1:16:50] source of income would be the Oregon government ethics Commission okay I

[1:16:54] would not we are not asking for your salary or that dollar amount okay the

[1:16:59] only time we ask for dollar amounts is anything you may have received from a

[1:17:03] source that has a legislative or administrative interest that's

[1:17:06] it all right this is due annually I'm going to go ahead and say this now

[1:17:10] you're going to hear it again uh in my next few slides but it is done uh

[1:17:15] between March 15th and April 15 okay so you have uh roughly 30 days to to submit

[1:17:24] this okay now heads up if you're already in the system that's fine you may want

[1:17:28] to take a moment now since we're in we're in we're coming up on that season

[1:17:33] to just kind of step in and make sure that all your information is up to date

[1:17:37] okay so as an SEI filer it is your responsibility to keep your account up

[1:17:41] to date that's that's a long-winded way of saying make sure you have a good

[1:17:46] email address in there and that your name's right

[1:17:49] okay it is due annually and it is done through our electronic

[1:17:56] filing system so if you're wondering hey April 15th fell on a Sunday or a

[1:18:01] Saturday night I still can I do it on Monday no it's open 247 so um you are

[1:18:08] required Able by April 15th to have that done okay I say that because we get a

[1:18:13] lot of lobbyists that that they have to file and they always say I should say

[1:18:17] always but some folks are like hey well it fell on a Sunday so I figured I could

[1:18:20] do it on Monday well yeah you can do it on Monday but you're you're going to

[1:18:23] acre some penalties for that so because you were late so um information it's not

[1:18:30] included you heard me say this already so your income again your income is that

[1:18:35] dollar amount we don't want to know it also your home address okay let me add a

[1:18:42] caveat here the only time your home address would be in your SEI is if

[1:18:50] you're running your business out of your home okay so when we ask for your

[1:18:54] business address and you're working out of your home or using your home as your

[1:18:59] business address then yes your bus your home address would now pop up in that

[1:19:04] category okay so you heard me say a lot of folks

[1:19:09] file uh the short list on here is going to be uh city and county officials uh

[1:19:16] judicial officers Justice of the Peace uh Port board

[1:19:21] Commissioners uh or all the all the directors of Oregon governmental

[1:19:25] agencies have to file and then education administrative

[1:19:30] and financial officers and school board members this heads up uh last year was

[1:19:35] the first year for school board members to have to file the first question they

[1:19:40] said was we've ever had to do this before why do we have to do it now um

[1:19:45] the ethics commission doesn't decide the legislature decides on who files and so

[1:19:50] um they determine that Schoolboard members are responsible for some large

[1:19:56] budgets and because of that they determine that Schoolboard members

[1:20:01] should be filing an SEI as well okay again it goes back to that transparency

[1:20:07] and knowing where your interests lie okay and again those decision-making uh

[1:20:13] powers that those public officials have all

[1:20:18] right so um for SE resources so if you're if

[1:20:24] you're new to filing or you forgot that's fine it's been a year okay I I

[1:20:29] can't remember anything from a year ago um so uh you know I'm I'm in trouble for

[1:20:35] everything so it's always like this happens every year Charlie our

[1:20:39] anniversary really yes I forgot okay so that's that's me from a year ago so um

[1:20:44] but we're here for you folks so we provide uh Oak has trainings for seci

[1:20:50] filers so we uh if you want to take a training it's a one-hour training we H

[1:20:54] we do that we also have written a written handout guide just heads up

[1:21:00] there has been some changes for seci filers this year I'm I'm getting to it

[1:21:05] um but right now uh our written handout is not ready yet because that change has

[1:21:11] not been put in there yet um we have a ton of information on

[1:21:16] our ogek website for trainings and of course you

[1:21:21] know the big one heard me say this earlier uh we are a resource uh Annette

[1:21:26] you mentioned David that means that you you've talked to him quite a bit so let

[1:21:31] me back up a moment you can always reach out to us do not hesitate to pick up the

[1:21:35] phone or shoot us an email uh we are geared up and ready for this every year

[1:21:41] this happens so we're there's already uh it's not written anywhere but it's

[1:21:46] implied strongly that you cannot take your vacation between uh February and

[1:21:52] April because the season gets pretty pretty hectic so the new thing for this

[1:22:00] year is that uh all SEI filers will now have to list their clients their

[1:22:08] customers their investors their legal relationship their contractual

[1:22:14] relationship and business relationships with those that have that

[1:22:20] uh are 10% or more of your businesses gross annual

[1:22:24] income again it's not the dollar amount it's just the source okay it's just

[1:22:31] those entities okay that is it so yes you're GNA have to step back for a

[1:22:37] moment and uh do the math on this okay so uh the way I the way I kind of uh

[1:22:44] again in my simple mind I kind of think in terms of okay yeah you you do own a

[1:22:49] catering business or you own a landscaping business or maybe you own a

[1:22:52] construction business and you do a lot of business with a lot of folks well

[1:22:57] you're going to have to sit back and go okay well who are my biggest clients and

[1:23:01] do they make up 10% of my gross annual income and if the answer is yes uh then

[1:23:06] you need to list them and of course also those that have a legislative or

[1:23:11] administrative interest okay so this is this is

[1:23:18] the the the new thing for this year so so we're already planning a lot of push

[1:23:26] back on this so again this is not something we dreamed up this is

[1:23:29] something the legislature said okay hey let's uh let's let's step up the game a

[1:23:34] little bit and uh look at this a little bit closer so it's it's no secret you've

[1:23:40] probably seen the headlines in the past year or so about a lot of public

[1:23:44] officials and uh this is directly uh how this has impacted uh the SEI filers

[1:23:53] so all right let's go one step further all right so why does a

[1:23:59] statement of economic interest need to be filed I think it's I think it's

[1:24:02] pretty clear but the idea here again going back to our original I think our

[1:24:07] second or third slide to safeguard the public trust okay again it's that that

[1:24:13] level of transparency us uh identifying our our

[1:24:18] sources of income identifying those folks that make up 10% or more our

[1:24:22] client base or 10% or more of our gross annual income or those folks that have a

[1:24:27] legislative or administrative interest kind of shines a light on our conflicts

[1:24:30] of interest our possible use of office and again it is required by law okay so

[1:24:36] that's the big one it is required by law so um you're probably thinking okay well

[1:24:43] it's required by law okay what does that actually mean that means that if you

[1:24:47] don't file that there are sanctions that come into play

[1:24:53] so the way it works is that uh you already know March 15 through April 15

[1:24:58] is uh SEI filer season and you already know that you can reach out to us at any

[1:25:05] time if you need help with that there's also if you're kind of an independent

[1:25:09] person all our stuff will be rolling out all the new stuff with all the changes

[1:25:13] will be available on that March 15th uh opening date hopefully before then I'm

[1:25:18] not part of that that group but hopefully before then but what I'm

[1:25:21] getting at is it happens sometimes you do file late we try and close that Gap

[1:25:27] but if you do happen to file late it is $10 per day for the first 14

[1:25:33] days [Music]

[1:25:35] okay um the next thing is it goes past that 14-day limit then it bumps up to

[1:25:41] $50 per day until you hit at $5,000

[1:25:50] Max all right so that's that's the penalties for not filing on time um our

[1:25:58] records uh will show what you've done in the past years if you file there's our

[1:26:03] database because it's done through EFS it tells us hey this folks fil this

[1:26:07] person filed late they were two days late three days late uh you know last

[1:26:13] year the year before the year before that so uh just a heads up these are

[1:26:20] things that we are aware of we do see those folks that are AC crewing

[1:26:23] penalties if we find that you are AC crewing penalties first thing first is

[1:26:28] the electronic filing system will send you an email every day telling you you

[1:26:34] are uh you are late with filing your SEI so that's again important that you go in

[1:26:39] and make sure that your information is up to date okay uh we are also notified

[1:26:44] and also the jurisdictional contact is notified as well so the idea here look

[1:26:50] here's here's my disclaimer on this it's it makes our life easier at the

[1:26:55] ethics commission when everyone files on time that basically April if April 16th

[1:26:59] RS around everyone's filed on time we're done for the year we're good uh we can

[1:27:03] close the book and move on but uh filing L doesn't do any we don't it's not like

[1:27:09] these penalties go to us and we have a a party or anything it goes into the

[1:27:13] general fund so we don't even see this so for us uh it it's our benefit not

[1:27:19] only your benefit but our benefit as well when you file on time

[1:27:24] okay all right any questions for me on this

[1:27:32] section okay all right seci filing you know look here's the thing I'll just

[1:27:38] throw that throw this out you get stuck call us just call us that's um we we

[1:27:44] deal with a lot of public officials you guys already know there's folks out

[1:27:48] there that are in some out there in the frontier

[1:27:52] um areas of Oregon cell service internet servic is

[1:27:57] horrendous um we fully expect to be helping people fire their file their

[1:28:02] seis over the phone that's just part of the part of the course so um do not

[1:28:07] hesitate to reach out to us all right so just to kind of uh recap what

[1:28:15] we've covered tonight we talked about use of office private employment

[1:28:19] conflicts of interest nepotism you got the SEI part as a bonus um but the other

[1:28:25] part of the ethics commission you you're on the training side you're on The

[1:28:28] Upfront part of it we also handle complaints so when it comes to

[1:28:33] complaints just heads up we only take signed complaints we do not take

[1:28:36] Anonymous complaints every complaint we we get there's going to be follow-up

[1:28:40] questions we need to know who we're talking to um and we will be reaching

[1:28:45] out to those public officials after the complaint was made and that's where our

[1:28:48] preliminary review kind of kicks in so uh we go into preliminary review we

[1:28:54] determine there is a uh looks like a uh a violation of of of

[1:29:02] rs44 or Lobby or public law we go to the Commissioners and ask him if we can move

[1:29:09] forward with an investigation of course if a violation is found then we get into

[1:29:13] those penalties again that a little bit of what we saw earlier but this this is

[1:29:16] going to apply more to RS 244 and uh well this applies to all of them

[1:29:21] actually so there's that $5,000 Max civil penalty uh $10,000 if it's a

[1:29:27] willful violation uh forture twice the amount of any Financial benefit realized

[1:29:32] from ethics violation and it's no secret as public officials if if you've been

[1:29:38] pretty good but one day you just slipped up we send out a lot of letters of

[1:29:41] Education okay so uh basically that's just telling you hey here's what the

[1:29:45] statute says and this is what you did and don't do it again because if you do

[1:29:50] it again you may find yourself in one of these other categories at that point so

[1:29:55] but again remember we're here for you folks so we

[1:29:59] do offer staff advice staff opinions and commission advisory opinions and what

[1:30:05] I'm getting at is when you reach out to us with a situation that you found

[1:30:08] yourself in uh this is something that's current

[1:30:12] this isn't something that's happened in the past uh but if you find yourself

[1:30:16] currently in a situation reach out to us shoot us an email what I'm saying is is

[1:30:22] is if we offer staff advice staff opinion or if we give you a

[1:30:25] commissionary advisory opinion that offers you a level of Safe Harbor okay

[1:30:29] we will give you instructions what your next moves will

[1:30:33] be can you accept this gift do you have to return it um uh I'm trying to think

[1:30:39] of some other ones can you can you drive that agency vehicle home those type of

[1:30:43] things that's that's something that you can ask us and if it's if it's allowed I

[1:30:48] mean we're going to ask tons of more questions these never are just ask a

[1:30:51] question there there's always a back and forth with these but again it's giving

[1:30:55] you that level of safe haror you do have to follow the instructions

[1:30:59] so there's tons of resources on our website as well you guys probably

[1:31:04] already know if you follow an SEI you can find it in public records you can

[1:31:08] look up anyone that's an SEI file that's filed um in our public records again

[1:31:13] doesn't tell you the dollar amount it just goes to the source but you can see

[1:31:17] everyone in there that's filed um you can also look up past complaints past

[1:31:23] advice um trainings this is this is the big overview training that we give for

[1:31:28] public officials we break this down into uh one hour chunks so we offer more

[1:31:34] questions we give more scenarios uh we throw in a lot more

[1:31:38] questions today was just the broad overview and of course uh if you have a

[1:31:44] complaint you can also file it online as well on our website I already know when

[1:31:48] you look at our website I'm like it's like every other public Body website

[1:31:51] it's like a lot of words and not a whole lot of buttons I'm like there's got to

[1:31:54] be an easier way but this is this seems to be the way it works for uh public

[1:31:58] bodies but um before I close out uh just unmute tell me what your

[1:32:04] biggest takeaway today is what was the one thing today you were just like I did

[1:32:08] not know that and I am now

[1:32:14] enlightened I'll give you a minute while you're thinking about it here's how you

[1:32:18] reach us I will I I think the um the about someone who's a

[1:32:25] volunteer yeah I mean that sort of stuff happens around here that there's you

[1:32:30] know we know people who serve on Boards of nonprofits and things like that and

[1:32:35] and knowing that that's not necessarily I mean that that if they're a volunteer

[1:32:41] it's not a conflict of interest is was new totally new to me yeah I think I

[1:32:46] think Annette uh said it so poetically when she said uh you

[1:32:53] know the money is not going into someone's pocket and

[1:32:58] so that that's that's the thing um you know volunteer uh nonprofit uh there's

[1:33:06] no financial gain then uh and financial gain again your pocket then yeah it's

[1:33:12] not a conflict of interest but here's here's the thing though we get this a

[1:33:15] lot it's kind of like well I'm not sure I'm not sure if I have a conflict of

[1:33:19] interest hey if you're not sure but you think something's there then then just

[1:33:23] say hey folks I have a potential conflict of interest here because uh you

[1:33:28] know my one of my relatives uh you know is on the board of the YMCA but they're

[1:33:34] not paid but I feel like I just need to make this announcement that there's a

[1:33:38] potential conflict um that's totally allowed that's you know if you're unsure

[1:33:43] I mean we had one that was recently where it was

[1:33:46] uh uh a fire district was uh they were voting to to build a road so that folks

[1:33:54] could evacuate from a neighborhood and someone complained and

[1:33:58] said well that person on the board lives in that neighborhood that that street

[1:34:03] would be driving through and so that's a that's a uh conflict of interest and

[1:34:09] it's kind of like well we came back and said well where's where's the financial

[1:34:13] gain uh you know it's it's it's helping everyone in the neighborhood evenly I

[1:34:20] mean you could argue that okay well maybe it shaves 5 minutes off their

[1:34:24] commute to work right but it's it was unclear it's like

[1:34:30] well they could announce a potential but right now there's no there's no actual

[1:34:34] conflict because there's no real money going into their pocket or no avoidance

[1:34:38] of financial detriment so um yeah potential all day long I mean every time

[1:34:43] we have a commission meeting there's there's one our commissioners is always

[1:34:46] saying hey you know what potential conflict I know this person they're

[1:34:50] they're a member of my Community I know this person so I'm going to just back

[1:34:53] out so um potential all day long no harm no foul it's the actual that's that you

[1:35:00] got to watch out for okay so it's 7:47 that's that's all

[1:35:05] I have um again my name's Charlie Esparza there's my email Charles uh you

[1:35:11] know when I'm in trouble I get called charles. aspara oac.org

[1:35:15] and.go um shoot me an email you can give me a phone call or no my phone's not on

[1:35:21] there but you can reach me uh 5033 at 5105 um I do have a followup email for

[1:35:27] y'all uh regarding the uh Financial oversight of public officials and how

[1:35:33] that may relate to nepotism I think we kind of answered it but I I I want to

[1:35:37] get a solid answer for that one so expect a follow-up email probably

[1:35:41] tomorrow or Wednesday so other than that all I could say is thank you for having

[1:35:46] me Amy reached out to me back she actually reached out to Ruth and I drew

[1:35:50] the short Str raw and had to train you guys tonight um I joke it's I'm a

[1:35:55] trainer uh everyone in the office knows man if there's a live audience to throw

[1:36:00] Charlie in front of by all means do it so uh um again thank you for having me

[1:36:07] uh that's all I have thanks Charlie thank you for making it fun yeah and

[1:36:14] uh with that okay here's my my my pitch right um I'll I'll be sending you a

[1:36:19] customer survey as well so if you just take the time out to fill

[1:36:23] that out just let us know uh if you enjoy the training if you did enjoy

[1:36:27] enjoy the training if you wish we expanded on more things or needed more

[1:36:31] detail let us know uh we kind of we really really rely on feedback uh

[1:36:37] because we usually don't we send out the emails we really don't know what what's

[1:36:39] going on out there if anyone benefited from it so uh please take that customer

[1:36:44] survey let us know let us know how we're doing and what we can do to improve it

[1:36:49] okay with that that's all I got I'm going to stop my share and I'm gonna let

[1:36:52] ammy uh Amy take over sorry about that thank

[1:36:57] you all right so it looks like uh our chair is gone so Vice shair you get a

[1:37:04] little taste so and unless we have any

[1:37:08] commission or comments we are ready to adjourn whenever you guys are so do we

[1:37:12] have a motion to

[1:37:16] adjourn you second a vote we adjourn all right thank you all

[1:37:22] I appreciate it okay thank you Char bye bye bye bye bye

February 12, 2024 Planning Commission Meeting

Transcript