King County Board of Ethics
Department of Executive Services
The Chinook Building
401 Fifth Avenue, Suite 131
Seattle, WA 98104-1818 CNK-ES-0131
206-296-1586 Fax 206-205-0725
board.ethics@kingcounty.gov
www.kingcounty.gov/ethics

KING COUNTY BOARD OF ETHICS MEETING NOTICE

AGENDA

1. Approval of Agenda

2. Approval of Meeting Minutes of October 20, 2008

3. Jean de Dieu Rakotondramihamina. Guest

4. Statement of Principles. Status review

5. Fifth Annual Ethics Quiz and Survey. Report

6. Staff Report

   • Staff informational response summary
   • Ethics Web site project

7. Executive Session

Upon advance request, reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities
are available by calling 206-296-1586 or TTY Relay: 771

ALTERNATE FORMATS AVAILABLE

King County Board of Ethics
Department of Executive Services
The Chinook Building
401 Fifth Avenue, Suite 131
Seattle, WA 98104-1818 CNK-ES-0131
206-296-1586 Fax 206-205-0725
board.ethics@kingcounty.gov
www.kingcounty.gov/ethics

Minutes of the November 17, 2008, meeting
of the King County Board of Ethics

The November 17, 2008, meeting of the King County Board of Ethics was called to order by Chair Price Spratlen 9:30 a.m. Board members in attendance were:

Gunbjorg Ladstein
Bruce Laing
Lois Price Spratlen, Ph.D., Chair
Anne J. Watanabe

Ron Carlson had an excused absence.

Others in attendance:
Alan Abrams, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney and Board Counsel
Catherine A. Clemens, Executive Director, Board of Ethics
Michael Strouse, Administrator, Department of Executive Services
Hon. Jean de Dieu Rakotondramihamina, Humphrey Fellow, Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington

1. Approval of Agenda. With the addition of one agenda item and reordering of the list, Ms. Watanabe moved and Ms. Ladstein seconded that the board approve the proposed agenda. The board unanimously adopted the motion.

2. Approval of Meeting Minutes of October 20, 2008. Ms. Ladstein moved and Ms. Watanabe seconded that the board approve the October 20, 2008, meeting minutes. The board unanimously adopted the motion and the minutes were approved.

3. Jean de Dieu Rakotondramihamina – Guest. Ms. Clemens introduced Mr. Rakotondramihamina, judge and director of Evaluation and Ethics in the Public Service, Ministry of Civil Service, on Madagascar. He is a Humphrey Fellow at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, and his focus of interest is civil servant performance evaluation, promoting ethics in civil service, and handling cases of misconduct. Ms. Clemens met with Mr. Rakotondramihamina previously and she has been facilitating other meetings for him with government colleagues. Board members and Mr. Rakotondramihamina exchanged information regarding education and training as a preventive measure; penalties for violations of ethics laws; and standards in their different jurisdictions. In addition, they discussed code development in Madagascar and its impetus, and the discipline process. The board thanked Mr. Rakotondramihamina for attending and invited him to stay for the remainder of the meeting and to attend any future meetings.

4. Statement of Principles. Ms. Clemens briefed the board. She has been in contact with the Washington State Association of Counties (WSAC) offices and is scheduled to talk directly with Executive Director Eric Johnson the following week. The board agreed to invite Mr. Johnson to a board meeting for discussion or travel to Olympia to meet with Mr. Johnson, and to obtain a copy of the June 2007 minutes at which Councilmember Hague presented the statement to the WSAC board members. Once that is known, the board is considering inviting Ms. Hague to a board meeting. Chair Price Spratlen suggested that board members work directly with the leaders of the 39 Washington state counties to encourage participation. Ms. Watanabe stated that our immediate plan was sound and that if it did not result in additional signers to the statement, we should move to work one-on-one with county leaders.

5. Fifth Annual Ethics Quiz and Survey. Ms. Clemens presented the 2008 report on the fifth annual ethics quiz and survey and its executive summary. Quiz participation increased by 2% over last year; 20% of 12,000 county employees who have access to computers participated. The most important conclusions from the quiz and survey questions included: (1) The high number of employees voluntarily taking part in the ethics quiz and survey indicate that employees have a continuing interest in workplace ethics; comments about the quiz indicate employees enjoy and learn from the quiz and that it should be continued; (2) Employees have a solid, basic understanding of the King County Code of Ethics demonstrated by the percentage of correct responses to questions; however, employees could benefit from additional education about discussing future work with consultants over whom they have responsibilities, and about soliciting goods and services from county businesses for workplace initiatives. In both prohibited situations, 30% of county employees mistakenly thought such actions were acceptable; (3) Training and education content and practical application delivered by the ethics staff received high marks: over 90% of respondents agreed strongly or agreed somewhat that the sessions included information about the county’s commitment to ethics in the workplace; 88% of respondents agreed strongly or agreed somewhat that the sessions covered practical examples of real-life situations they might encounter on the job; 84% of respondents agreed strongly or agreed somewhat that the session provided enough information so that they knew how to resolve an ethical dilemma; 40% of respondents agreed strongly or agreed somewhat that the training helped them actually resolve an ethical dilemma (32% had not encountered such a situation); and (4) Employees welcome additional ethics education and training; two-thirds of respondents think their agency would benefit from an ethics presentation. Ms. Clemens described how this information will be used for future education of county employees and the board agreed with the approach, discussing the importance of education and training as an important tool for preventing ethics violations.

The Chair asked the executive director to schedule meetings with the Executive and one other board member as well as the annual presentation to the County Council. The purpose of the traditional meetings is to exchange information with county leadership on ethics matters throughout King County.

6. Staff Report. Staff informational response summary. The executive director issued 14 written staff informational responses (SIR) between October 13 and November 10, 2008, as requested by employees and elected officials of King County. Ethics issues addressed by the responses include: jurisdiction; acceptance of funds from vendor; gift and/or refreshment from vendor (2); use of county resources (facility) (2); acceptance of ‘thank you’ gift certificate; solicitation of prizes from county businesses; campaign activities (3); complaint on violations of the ethics code; post-employment; and use of county funds for board/commission reimbursement.

Mr. Laing arrived at 10:33 am.

Chair Price Spratlen encouraged members to attend ethics presentations by the executive director. Ms. Ladstein stated that as a county employee she had taken part in previous ethics training.

Mr. Strouse, Mr. Abrams and Mr. Rakotondramihamina left the meeting at 10:35 a.m.

7. Executive Session. At 10:40 a.m., Chair Price Spratlen requested that the meeting move into executive session for the purpose of discussing the performance of a public employee. The chair announced that the executive session would conclude in approximately 15 minutes.

At 10:52 a.m., the board completed the executive session and resumed its regular meeting.

The board continued its discussion regarding strategies to move forward on the statement of principles and encouraging other jurisdictions to take part. In addition, Dr. Price Spratlen reminded the board of the crystal vases she purchased on behalf of current members for former members Dr. Margo Gordon and Rev. Paul Pruitt, and invited members to join her after the meeting to see an example and discuss whether the board would like to buy several of them for future, retiring board members.

Ms. Watanabe moved and Ms. Ladstein seconded the motion to adjourn the meeting. The board unanimously approved the motion and the meeting was adjourned at 11:18 a.m.

Approved this ­­2nd day of February, 2009, by the King County Board of Ethics.

Signed for the Board:__________________________________________________
Dr. Lois Price Spratlen, Chair