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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20061023EABMinutes.pdfEthics Advisory Board October 23, 2006 Members Present: Randi Bryan, Fretwell Crider, Linda Gladin, Lynn Hamilton, Roma Harper, Anne Miller, and Sue Off Ex-Officos Present: Janice Elliott and Bubba Hughes Members Absent: Charlie Brewer Guests: Jan Fox, CFO for the City of Tybee Island Linda Gladin called the meeting to order and called roll. Linda changed the order of the agenda so that Jan Fox could be first on the agenda and leave immediately after her presentation on the City’s procurement policy. Linda stated that the details should be housed in policy, but the ethics ordinance should state that someone is empowered to adopt policies that can be modified so long as Council approves those policies. Jan stated that if a po licy goes before City Council and it is approved then any changes to it must be approved by the City Council. The Purchasing Policy that was approved by Council was just amended to increase the amount to go out for bid to $20,000. The State rule in procurement is that no city employee can benefit financially from a purchase or service unless it is under seal bid and full disclosure. No individual can do business with the City on small purchases of greater than $200 a quarter. Under the Fair Standard Labo r Act, a City employee can not volunteer their time to the City; they must be paid if they are hourly employees. It is important to remember that because the supervisor will be in jeopardy by allowing them to work as volunteer hours to the City. There ar e laws that people are not familiar with that there should be added than referenced because people often don’t have the resources to find out what that statue is even talking about. This could be included into the Employee handbook. As far as purchasing, Jan did read with interest the Cone of Silence. She explained that in purchasing the Department abide by something similar to that with the exception rather than not have oral communication, but insist that any Department Head that is involved in going o ut for proposal or bid, they would be the contact person in the cover page of the proposal or bid and any communication done with that Department Head is reported and information is transmitted to all registered bidders so that everyone gets the same infor mation. That has been our compensated control because we do have so few people. If we had a Procurement Manager that could walk a bid from conception to a conviction then we could exclude the oral communication. Linda asked Jan if she had seen the plain English Cone of Silence. Sue stated that the Federal Administrative Procurement Act defines the Ex Parte communication. Jan stated that is looked good except not to involve the City Clerk because al l information concerning a bid is stored in a classification folder and it becomes part of the City r ecords that way. We do not want to duplicate for the City Clerk. She is responsible for all records City wide and has access to those folders. Linda will send Cone of Silence to Jan for review so that it meets the requirements according to how our policy is written. Jan stated that we should further it by adding that the benefiting Department Head is responsible for the administration of the contract and a check list should be issued th at everything has been done so that payment can follow. Sue stated that the Cone of Silence also applies to Council members. Jan stated that a Council member should not be involved in any procurement. Sue questioned the approval of contracts. Council does not see contrac ts until after the bids are closed and recommendations are made. Linda stated that we could add that a council member can be involved only in a public meeting. Linda commented that the Cone of Silence was very difficult to read until she found plain English Miami. Jan stated that the mandated public purchasing is to have everything open and fair. You hate the thought of restricting communications, but restricting oral communication in certain phase as long as we don’t unduly burden the process. It is already a 90 to 120 day process and having to commit everything to writing would extend that time. Linda asked if there was any chance that there will be a dedicated Procurement Manager. Jan has included money in the budget for one, but there is no room for another person in the building. Jan stated as far as writing ordinances for procurement to make them as broad as possible to touch all the law that needs to be in there mainly because everything changes so quickly. She discussed the idea of electronic platforms. Prior to the procurement policy, the Department Heads did their own ordering. There were some contracts in the past, but it wasn’t as formal as it is now. Randi is unsure if the Cone of Silence should be in the Ethics Ordinance. It seems that with the Federal and State laws that we have to deal with and the current policy this part has been taken care of. Linda asked if the Cone of Silence or a variation of it could be place in the Procurement Policy. Jan stated that she will be willing to amend the policy that we have and send it to Council for their review. If truly what you want to do is restrict oral communication and not communication, it will slow the process down but we have email now . Getting all the vendors to register is to their benefit. We will be launching a new website this week and the RFP’s will be out there. We will need to re-write the opening statement on the RFP. Linda stated that we would like to keep it as a high level as we can. We need what is absolutely necessary and nothing more. Sue stated that the Cobb County Ethics Ordinance which we are using as our base has nothing about procurement. She questioned if we really need to put it in our ordinance. Bubba stated that he didn’t feel that it was necessary. The ethics and the conflict issue that will be in the ethics ordinance as with state laws should cover this. Randi asked about those businesses giving presentations before Council. Jan stated that when a business is giving a presentation to Council then the recommendation was very close. The businesses have been asked to present their product/service to Council. The Council will make a decision, but they also have an executive summary in front as them. The bid process has been completed etc. Bubba stated if any Council member had communicated or received any information prior to the meeting then it will be a violation of state law. Administration Randi made a motion to approve the minutes. Sue seconded the motion. Minutes approved. Linda introduced and welcomed the newest member to the Ethics Advisory Board, Fretwell Crider. The timeline and everyone’s responsibility was discussed. On the new website, Todd will be able to have a secure page only for the Ethics Advisory Board so that all members could review stored material given a password. Hopefully this will cut down on the amount of paper work that is being shuffled. Document Numbering/Identification scheme will be as follows: Prefixes such as agenda, handout, message, notes, sectdraft, sectready, sectwaiting to be followed by SectionNames to be followed by SectionDate, to be followed by Version, to be followed by Full Name. This document number and identification scheme will help keep documents up to date and in order as they progress. Follow up There has been a first reading on the amendment to the ethics ordinance to extend the time until May 31, 2007 and the committee being quasi legislative. The second reading will occur at the next meeting. The Mayor is to appoint another member to the committee. Impartiality Discussion (See October agenda packet) There was discussion on line 6. Bubba stated that you will need to define person to include entity or define entity. Sue stated that the way Cobb County stated is simple. Linda will send out a draft to fix this line and will take comments at that time. Line 8, we can delete the whole item, delete the word “personal”, or delete “participate in any personal……or” to read: A Public Servant must not initiate, receive or retain any direct or indirect business, employment or other financial interest that might reasonably and consistently cause the public to question their impracticability. Linda will place this in the draft. She will also place a definition on substantial interest. Line 22, gift will be defined in the definition list. Linda is keeping a running list of the definition that will be defined in the ordinance. There was discussion on where the definitions of each term should be taken. Linda stated that we will all reach consensus on any definition. Linda stated that we could use Black’s Legal Dictionary and use their definitions in plain English. Linda will do a 2nd draft on Impartiality changing the language and send it out for everyone to review and comment on. Declaration of Policy Much discussion on the word “should” to be replaced with the work “must” in this session. Bubba stated the “must” is a command and “should” is a goal. In the Declaration of Policy the word “will” is used 4 times. Page 2 lines 30-33, written leaving the wills out. Linda will do a 2nd draft changing the language and send it out for everyone to review and comment on. Meeting Adjourned Anne motioned for the meeting to be adjourned. Roma seconded the motion - Meeting Adjourned.