7/19/1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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L _ I Assistant County Attorney O'Brien advised that after previous consideration, ordinance inconsistencies were removed from item (5)(b)(2) concerning refreshments. Also, Supervisor of Elections Robinson pointed out that "county officer" is the term used in the Florida Statutes and Constitution for constitutional officers, so, for clarity, he asked for license to change "county officer" to either "county employee" or "Board -appointed county employee.,, In response to a concern Commissioner Eggert raised, Attorney O'Brien suggested the following change in (5) (b) , "The prohibitions enumerated in paragraphs (a) and (c) of this section do not apply... ", which would clarify any misunderstanding regarding campaign -related contributions. Attorney O'Brien explained that the proposed ordinance would not apply to constitutional officers nor their employees; it would overrule the present County Employee's Manual where in conflict, and it did not cover nepotism which is covered in the Employee's Manual. Disclosure of relationship to a certain staff level could be included in the ordinance if desired. Commissioner Adams inquired if passage of the ordinance would avoid future accusations of contracts being awarded to relatives of County employees, and Administrator Chandler pointed out that the Personnel Manual has a separate section on nepotism, which follows State law. Commissioner Bird felt that the Code of Ethics was sufficiently covered in Florida Statutes and read the following: The "Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees" adopted by the Legislature is found in Chapter 112 (Part III)_.of the Florida Statutes. Foremost among the goals of the Code is to promote the public interest and maintain the respect of the people in their government. The Code is also intended to ensure that public officials conduct themselves independently and impartially, not using their offices for private gain, other than compensation provided by law. While seeking to protect the integrity of government, the Code also seeks to avoid the creation of unnecessary barriers to public service. Commissioner Bird also pointed out that Commissioners were part-time employees and generally had outside full time employment and that was envisioned by the Legislature. Also, advisory board members and some full time employees had second jobs. For those reasons, the Legislature prescribed certain reporting and conduct requirements regarding outside employment which include filing disclosure forms. Commissioner Bird felt that as long as State law was followed, he saw no problems. 95 �,nnX92 -'!J 990 July 19, 1994