Reference No. CB-068-2018    Draft No. 1
Type: Council Bill Status: Failed
Meeting Body Public Safety and Fiscal Management Committee
Meeting Date 9/4/2018
Introduced Date Public Hearing Date
Effective date:    
Title: AN ACT CONCERNING CODE OF ETHICS for the purpose of amending the Code of Ethics in order to conform to State law, changing certain restrictions and requirements for County employees and officials.
Proposers/Sponsors: County Executive
Code sections: 02-292 - , 02-293 - , 02-294 -
Attachments: 1. B2018068, 2. CB-68-2018 AIS, 3. CB-68-2018 Transmittal
Contact: LaShanda R. Whaley, Office of Ethics and Accountability

Title

AN ACT CONCERNING CODE OF ETHICS for the purpose of amending the Code of Ethics in order to conform to State law, changing certain restrictions and requirements for County employees and officials.

 

Background

House Bill 879, enacted during the 2017 Legislative session, made multiple modifications to the State Ethics Law, some of which will change the requirements for local government ethics laws. Those changes include additional disclosures for State elected officials that local governments must incorporate into their Ethics Ordinances.  However, a number of changes relax certain requirements, including making home addresses confidential from disclosure. 

 

Pursuant to requirements of State law, this legislation will amend the County’s Code of Ethics as follows: (1) Reflect changes recently made by the Maryland General Assembly to the State Ethics Laws.  During the 2017 legislative session, the General Assembly, enacted legislation requiring prohibiting the disclosure of certain personal information (home address of filer) contained in a financial disclosure statement from being subject to public disclosure.  The changes also modify the disclosure of indebtedness to entities doing business with the County, to restrict the reporting to only those entities which are doing business with the filer’s agency, department, board or commission; (2) Requires designated filers of financial disclosure statements to disclose those entities for which their spouse has engaged in lobbing activity; (3) Requires elected officials who leave to refrain from lobbying on a matters they covered for a period of one year after leaving office; (4) Requires former registered lobbyists who become County employees or officials to refrain from participating in matters in which they lobbied prior to employment with the County for a period of one year.

 

All future changes to the ethics ordinance must be submitted to the Commission for review and approval in compliance with Subtitle 8 of the Maryland Public Ethics Law and COMAR  19A.04.  Accordingly, the proposed amendments to the Code of Ethics embodied in this legislation are pending approval by the State Ethics Commission.

 

THIS BILL WAS NOT ENACTED



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