Advisory Opinion 92-03-1041
Solid Waste/Procedures to Protecting Employees with Conflicts of Interests

ISSUE: ARE THE PROCEDURES SET FORTH BY THE KING COUNTY SOLID WASTE DIVISION SUFFICIENT TO ISOLATE OR PROTECT EMPLOYEES WHEN THEY HAVE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST WITH PERSONS DOING BUSINESS WITH THE COUNTY?

Opinion: The Board finds that the measures listed below effectively remove a Manager from decisions that involve substantial participation in decisions that could involve financial gain for the vendor with whom he or she has a professional or personal relationship and who is doing business with the County in his or her area of responsibility.

1. The Manager does not participate on selection panels that involve the vendor.
2. The Manager does not serve as a Manager on projects performed by the vendor.
3. If a project of the vendor is managed by a subordinate of the Manager, the Manager may participate in technical or engineering decisions if necessary. Any decision, however, involving contract performance or compensation is to be referred to the involved manger's supervisor.

The Board finds the procedures put in place by the Manager of the Solid Waste Division to be exemplary for addressing possible conflict of interest between applicable employees and vendors. We note that the established procedures could well become a model for other Managers and Directors of King County organizational units to apply.

Statement of Circumstances: The Manager of the Solid Waste Division has requested an advisory opinion from the King County Board of Ethics regarding the adequacy of procedures set forth after acknowledging that he as manager and a project manager employed in the division are involved personally and professionally with a consultant firm that does business with the Solid Waste Division.

Analysis:

AUTHORITY RELIED UPON

King County Code 3.04.017 Definitions

D. "County employee" or "employee" means, any individual who is appointed as an employee by the appointing authority of a County agency, office, department, council, board, commission or other separate unit or division of County government, however designated, but does not include employees of the County's judicial branch. The Term "County employee" also includes County elected officials and members of County boards, commissions, committees, or other multi-member bodies but does not include officials or employees of the County's judicial branch but does include employees of the Department of Judicial Administration.

J. "Participate" means, in connection with a transaction involving the County, to be involved in a County action personally and substantially as a County employee either directly, or through others through approval, disapproval, decision, recommendation, the rendering of advice, investigation, or otherwise.

King County Code 3.04.030 Conflict of Interest. No County employee shall engage in any act which is in conflict with the performance of official duties. A County employee shall be deemed to have a conflict of interest if the employee directly or indirectly:

F. Discusses or accepts an offer of future employment with any person doing or seeking to do business with the County if either:

1. The employee knows or has reason to believe that the offer of employment was or is intended, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, as compensation or reward for the performance or nonperformance of a duty by the employee during the course of County employment or to influence County action pertaining to the business, or;

2. The employee has responsibility for a matter upon which the person is doing or seeking to do business with the County unless the employee has first disclosed in writing to his or her appointing authority that the employee intends to discuss future employment with a specific person and the appointing authority has designated, in a memorandum filed with the Ombudsman and the Clerk of the Council, a method of providing for an alternative decisionmaker with regard to matters involving such person for which the employee otherwise would have responsibility.

ISSUED ON THE _______________________ day of _________________, 1992

Signed for the Board: Dr. J. Patrick Dobel, Chair

Members:

Timothy Edwards, Esq.
Dr. J. Patrick Dobel, Chair

JPD:dwm

cc:

Tim Hill, King County Executive
King County Councilmembers
Robert Stier, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Legal Counsel, King County Board of Ethics
Rella Foley, Ombudsman, Office of Citizen Complaints