HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-19-1999 Meeting
I
ETHICS SUBCOtv1l\1ITTEE
COM.i'vfITTEE ROOM - October 19, 1999
10:45 A.M.
PRESENT: J.B. Powell, Chairman, J. Brigham, W. :Mays, members, R. Oliver,
Administrator, J. Wall, Attorney, L. Norton, L. Bonner, Clerk of Commission.
ALSO PRESENT: S. Cooper, Augusta Chronicle, S. Eidson, Metro Spirit, G. Eskola,
Channel 6.
Mr. Powell: I would like to call to order the Ethics Subcommittee. The purpose
of this meeting is to come up with a clear plan of how we want to proceed, to get a plan
of action and to openly discuss what we want to do. There were several approaches that I
looked at possibly moving forward. I guess my own idea was to first come up with a
plan and take the ordinances we have and get the County Attorney's office possibly '0
breakdown those ordinances and give us an overview of what the differences in the
ordinances were. The second thing is; once we get past that point, is to come up with a
plan of how we need to breakdown the ordinances as far as sections are concerned and
the different degrees that we want to go to and try to find out how deep we're going to go
into this or where we're going to have a cut off point. Because, I think if we are to be
perceived as a functional subcommittee we don't need to get bogged down in details.
I
Mr. Wall: Both of the ordinances were prepared from a form that was provided to
me. The first one, the Code of Ethics, this was something that the Mayor furnished to me
that Governor Roy Barnes issued and executive order that was applicable to executive
department employees and asked me to put that in the form of an ordinance. So I have
not done any search of other ordinances to see how those rules compared to what other
counties have done. Mr. Brigham has furnished to me copies of various ordinances that
ACCG has accumulated from other counties and subsequent to drafting this, I received a
book from GMA. a book with sample ordinances of various municipalities included in
there. The initial ordinance that I prepared, the first section, the Code of Ethics for
Govenunent Service, we already have in our code. Following consolidation, this was
adopted and included in the code in early 1996. So that set of standards was left in the
ordinance and just was renumbered so that all the provisions would be in a common
place. The persons that were subject to the ordinance, the instructions, directions that I
was given was to apply to not only the employees but also to the Mayor and members of
the Commission as well as any other boards or commissions that were appointed by you.
So it was to be all encompassing, except as to an elected official outside of the Mayor and
Commission and to define what a gift was and excluded certain things. Also in the
subsequent amended changes that the Mayor requested: lawful campaign contributions,
as well as tickets or passes to a complimentary event given by the event sponsor. Some
questions have come up concerning that and I want to be clear, this would mean that the
Masters tickets are the ones that have been in the press. If those were given to you
directly by the event sponsor, Augusta National, then it would not be a gift. However, if
a vendor or friend who might do business with the county or whatever were to give you
those tickets, or tickets to any other function or game, then it would be deemed to be a
I
gift and under this ordinance it would require that it be reported. The reporting is done
by the employee under this ordinance as well as the as a Commissioner. An employee
who receives a gift must report it no later than the end of the quarter in which the gift is
received to the Clerk of the Commission. When you get to the vendor ordinance, the
vendor would have to make a report if the gift exceeds the aggregate of $100 during any
calendar year. So the first ordinance talks about a quarterly report, the vendor ordinance
refers to a calendar year and if it exceeds in the aggregate of $100 then it would require
the vendor to make a report to the Clerk.
I
Mr. Powell: What is the existing state law?
Mr. Wall: It prohibits the giving or receiving of any gift which is intended to
influence action. Also, prohibited is doing business that exceeds $200 during any
calendar quarter by any of you as elected officials with the county, unless its through ;.:.
sealed bid process. There is an exception, if there is an emergency where you have 1;c go::<
out and acquire something, but that has to be reported. If it is designed to influence
action, it is prohibited by state law.
Mr. Brigham: Under this ordinance, if we reported something and the vendor
failed to report something are we possibly entrapping the vendor because he failed to
report it?
Mr. Wall: Yes, possibly.
I
Mr. Brigham: Ifwe wanted to put penalties in this ordinance for doing business
with us for failure to report, are we possibly eliminating that vendor.
Mr. Wall: One of the sanctions would be to suspend or bar the vendor from doing
business for a period of time.
Mr. Brigham: One of my concerns is, I don't want to entrap either vendors or
Commissioners by double reporting of the same event. As a Commissioner I wouldn't
necessarily know the value of a gift that could be reported. I don't want to see us de an
ordinance that we're going to end up through lack of knowledge cause ourselves to be
entrapped by the ordinance.
Mr. Mays: The technicalities on the reporting side I think is something we should
be concerned about. I had a conversation with a former vendor, who is not in that
situation at all who previously worked for state govenunent and did that type of
reporting. You mentioned group situations, as we all know at GMA and ACCG level, not
for people who maybe looking for business with the city. But for instance, you have
events that may come up at holiday time when you're traveling, there maybe an event
that a host maybe hosting six or seven different counties at the same time. There maybe
to the point that you're not invited to that particular event but standing with people wb.o
are and they will invite you to come along. The pro-rated amount for what goes into that, I
where it may enter into a breakdown or into gratitude's or they may rent a place and host
I
sixty to one hundred people the and the breakdown, if they do a general reporting
situation. They may have spent seventy-five dollars per commissioner that was allotted.
On the dual reporting side, while everybody is being perfectly honest, the vendors
acknowledging what they have done, the Commissioner or Mayor acknowledging where
they have been. Teclmically speaking, if the Commissioner or Mayor does not know the
value being reported, that could make him guilty automatically. Where in the ordinance,
would the solicitation or possible solicitation of vendors by an elected official, it would
concern me more, not so much as to whether or not who missed reporting five or ten
dollars on the accuracy of a dinner, as it is in terms of where that is addressed and to
whether or not that's something you are going to deal with on an ethical level. Because
to say 'Nhat's in ones mind, I think is a hard case to try and win. On our level you maybe
able to get somebody on an indictment and ifthey didn't have a good legal defense, may
end up going to jail on something that might be excused on some other level. I think,
that's really where we want to make sure that when we pass something that we're not
dealing with some grand standing on some paper that get folks on minor technicalities of
reporting that still does not deal with really address the ethical nature of what I think
came out possibly, in the Grand Jury of serious wrong doing of folk doing business with
the City of Augusta. I think if we're going to write one it ought to be in that direction of
doing it as opposed to someone forgetting what they ate and get caught up in a
misdemeanor. That's why I think we need some room that if we want to have, Mr.
Chairman, other people to submit in writing or orally, what they may even think to be
above board of a conflicting situation.
I
Mr. Powell: \Vhat I would like to do at this point is solicit input from the entire
Commission regarding the proposed Ethics & Vendors Ordinances. r am going to ask
Ms. Bonner to solicit the rest of the Commission and the Mayor to find out if there is
anything else they would like to see in the ordinance and have each Commissioner
communicate his thoughts and concerns to the Attorney.
Mr. Brigham: I'll so move Mr. Chairman that we make a survey ofthe rest of the
Commission.
Mr. Mays: Second.
Mr. Powell: Is there anything you would like to see amended or added to that for
the other Commissioners?
I
Mr. Mays: I think whatever concerns they may have, whether it's general or
personal, I won't speak for anybody else's business. I have talked with a couple that
have had some concerns, in reference to that teclmical aspect as it may relate to their
business or profession and I think they will be able to do that for themselves at that time.
r also think we need to look towards closing this situation out before we get into the
holiday season because I think we need to be serious about what goes into the ordinance.
But I do think we need to have a vote on one before along length of time goes by.
Because I think it's important from a public standpoint on one hand we want to have
things in place we can be regulated legitimately and fairly, but at the same time I think it
needs to move from this Committee and get the input of the Commissioners and get it
back on the floor that way everybody has had a chance to put some things in and to ma..l(e
sure we have some of the legal things cornered. .'\11d at the same time, if there ,-:.:.c:;; "c.:.22':
personal things in there that we may need a ruling on. that it gives the Attorney '" ,.!"':.,t'..,.~
to ::tdvise us as to \vho C<Ul make that particalar ruiing if i10t mm.
I
Motion carried unanimously.
Mr. Powell: What I would like to see Mr. Wall do is take the State law and
compare these ordinances and illustrate what the differences are in these ordinances and
the S tate law.
With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.
Lena J. Bonner
Clerk of Commission
/bb
I
I