Title
County Counsel recommending the Board adopt and authorize the Chair to sign Resolution 192-2020, adopting a revised County Conflict of Interest Code and rescinds Resolution 246-2018.
FUNDING: N/A
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
State law requires that each local public agency adopt its own local conflict of interest code, which must contain certain specified provisions, including a designation of specific employment positions with the public entity that make decisions which may have an effect on economic interests, and a description of the type of economic interest each designated employee must disclose on his or her statement of economic interest. To help identify potential conflicts of interest, the law requires public officials and employees holding designated positions in a conflict of interest code to report their financial interests on a form called Statement of Economic Interests (Form 700).
In order to simplify the process for local public entities, state law permits a local public entity to adopt a particular state regulation, Title 2, California Code of Regulations (2 CCR) §18730, as its conflict of interest code, and attach to it an appendix of designated employees and an appendix of disclosure categories for each of the designated employees. The incorporation of the state regulation into a county’s code means that the code is automatically updated if the regulation is changed in the future. The County uses this process and has adopted the state regulation as the County’s conflict of interest code.
To ensure the conflict of interest code remains current and accurate, each local public agency is required to review its conflict of interest code biennially in even-numbered years. As part of the updating process, the County Elections Department asked each Department Head to review the current list of designated employees in his or her department, and to indicate whether the list should be changed to take into account positions that have bee...
Click here for full text