2007-01-10 Board of Ethics Minutes Regular Session

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Board of Ethics Minutes of Regular Session January 10, 2007 they don't have any business before the County Council. There is no rezoning or anything like that. But, I think this is troublesome because I want to use it. If someone brings something edible, you give it to the staff, but here was something that had value to me because I happened to like the hotel. That is when the bell went off. I should not accept this gift. I didn't want to offend the person so I called and asked if they would mind if I give it to the Police Department for their Christmas dinner as a door prize. I used to be given tickets for golf tournaments. I never did anything with them. Then, one year in the paper, to my great shock, I read that they were worth $1,400.00 and I just about died. Especially because they were of no value tome and I didn't go to the tournament. There it was in the newspaper that I had a $1,400.00 ticket. After that I would turn it over to junior golf, or golf teams at the high schools because they were interested in watching professional golfers. I can't imagine how boring it would be for me. There are these occasions when people bring you gifts. AL: It is difficult because in our local culture the gifting is such, you just do it all your life. BLT: So they have made distinctions at the state and other agencies that said, generally, things that spoil, disappear, food and leis and flowers, those things are no problem because they don't last. But things like golf clubs, computers, accepting trips to go visit places; those are the things that you need to be more cautious of. Some things they totally ruled out. You cannot get that expensive set of golf clubs. If you paid to go to the golf tournament, then fine. But if you were invited as a government official and you didn't pay to participate in the golf tournament, then you can't take that set of golf clubs. KS: I have a question. Cars. Fleet rate cars. You go to a dealer "Oh, you're a County employee, no problem, you get this rate." RW: Really? KS: If all the County Police are buying their cars, if there is a fleet of cars for the County or State department, like Dodge has the fleet cars for department of transportation. WJ: They take those things out to bid, and they buy with certain specifications, and there is a bidding procedure. KS: Yeah but if you walk in and say "I work for the Department of Transportation, I'd like a Dodge." BLT: I don't know if that occurs. That would be an issue of whether there was some kind of ethical violation. Frankly, with vehicles, there is so much profit that there is a lot of room to negotiate. It might be blue smoke and mirrors when they tell you that they have a great government rate for you. I'm unaware. The police cars here that are individually owned. The police department has certain specs as to the amount of horsepower and I think the size, because maybe they don't want you driving around in a Miata with room for one person, and nothing on top. There are specs, but beyond that they are free to buy their own vehicle and there is an 13