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
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 that is the subject of legislative action 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 previously assisted or represented another party for compensation in the matter prior to employment with the County for a period of one year from the date of their termination as a registered lobbyist.
The proposed amendments to the Code of Ethics embodied in this legislation have been approved by the State Ethics Commission.