2007-02-14 Board of Ethics Minutes Regular Session

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Board of Ethics Minutes of Regular Session February 14, 2007 LSA: It is permanent? Okay, then if it is permanent then they are locked away in a file cabinet somewhere, possibly in the basement of the old county building, probably some in our office. BLT: I'll have to look at that, because maybe we need to change that. There really isn't a need to have it that long, not the financial disclosures. The opinions need to be kept permanently, but not the financial disclosures. LSA: Changing it is easy. Just a written request to the committee I sit on with Casey Jarman, Bill Takaba, and myself. We meet once a month. We will put it on our agenda and then we are good to go. WJ: Then it is something we can generate and request? LSA: Yeah, whatever you feel is appropriate for retention. WJ: Any further questions? AL: What is the name of your committee? LSA: The Committee on the Destruction of Records. The state law creates this committee. The Corporation Counsel, the County Clerk and the Financial Director sit on it. It is just like you folks, we are subject to Sunshine. We met in here yesterday, sitting like you folks did, no public testimony but it is all recorded and all that. WJ: Further questions? Not? Okay, Mr. Ashida thank you very much. So at this point with Memorandum 2007 -05 can we get a motion to accept and file? Motion and Vote: Mr. Williams made a motion to accept and file Communication 2007 -05; Ms. Sharpless seconded the motion, all members voted aye. Motion carried. BLT: I took a quick look at our rules and our rules appear to be silent on our retention schedule. There are two different types of documents you deal with. One is your opinions, formal and informal, and all the evidence and documents that are submitted in those hearings. The others are the financial disclosures. On the opinions I guess there are two issues. One is the final written opinion itself should be kept as a record of the disposition of the case. If you need to keep all the documents and testimony that were a part of that case forever, is another question. I would think that, particularly after someone has left office or left employment with the county, there should definitely be some kind of period where so many years after they have left office or so many years after they have left employment that all of their financial disclosures should be destroyed. For those people who continue in office and in employment, there should be at most a six -year period of keeping those disclosures. That would be so that you could view one year's disclosure against previous years, if a question ever came up. I don't think we have ever done it. But if some question, that somebody had failed to disclose something in a prior year. The reason I am thinking six years, is because the IRS can only go after 11