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KING COUNTY BOARD OF ETHICS SPECIAL MEETING NOTICE
AND ANNUAL RETREAT When: Monday, February 2, 2009, 1:00 p.m.
Where: The Chinook Building
401 Fifth Avenue
1st floor, conference room 118
Seattle, WA 98104
AGENDA1. Approval of Agenda 2. Approval of Meeting Minutes of November 17, 2008 3. 2008 Annual Report 4. 2009 Mission and Goals 5. 2009 Work Plan - Ethics Office and Staff
- Overview by month
- Awareness campaign 2009 - 2010
- Ethics Promotion and Measurements through Human Resources
6. Determine 2009 Work Plan - Board of Ethics
- 2009 meeting schedule & membership status
7. Staff Report
- 2009 Financial disclosure program - status report
- Filing Requirement for Candidates - status report
- Legal Counsel to the Board of Ethics
- Staff schedule - February
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 February 2, 2009, special meeting
and annual retreat of the King County Board of Ethics The February 2, 2009, special meeting and annual retreat of the King County Board of Ethics was called to order by Chair Price Spratlen at 1:00 p.m. Board members in attendance were: Ron Carlson
Bruce Laing
Lois Price Spratlen, Ph.D., Chair
Anne J. Watanabe Gunbjorg Ladstein had an excused absence. Others in attendance:
James J. Buck, CAO and Director, Department of Executive Services
Catherine A. Clemens, Executive Director, Board of Ethics
Eric Johnson, Executive Director, Washington State Association of Counties (WSAC)
De'Sean Quinn, Director of Regional & City Relations, King County 1. Approval of Agenda. Mr. Laing moved and Ms. Watanabe seconded that the board approve the proposed agenda. The board unanimously adopted the motion. 2. Approval of Meeting Minutes of November 17, 2008. With minor corrections, Mr. Laing moved and Mr. Carlson seconded that the board approve the November 17, 2008, meeting minutes. The board unanimously adopted the motion and the minutes were approved. 3. 2008 Annual Report. With minor changes, board members reviewed and approved the Message from the Board to be included in the printed version of the 2008 Annual Report. Ms. Clemens reviewed the 2008 Annual Report specifically prepared for the board, including the 2008 mission, goals, activities and performance measures of the ethics board and staff. Achievement highlights by board and staff in 2008 were: 1) established an initiative to promote and measure ethics standards in cooperation with the King County Human Resources Division leadership and its Service Delivery Managers/Ethics Partners; 2) provided training to 1,890 employees or approximately 14.5% of all county employees; 3) achieved 99.7% filing compliance for the financial disclosure program for employees and elected officials by the April 15th deadline, and achieved 99.2% filing compliance for board and commission members by that date; and 4) conducted the fifth annual, on-line ethics quiz and survey for county employees with access to computers in which 20% of 12,000 employees took part. Following questions and positive comments from the board, Ms. Watanabe moved to accept the 2008 Annual Report; Mr. Laing seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously. The complete report may be found on the ethics Web site at www.kingcounty.gov/ethics.
4. 2009 Mission and Goals. Following review of the proposed mission and goals, the board discussed Goal V, in detail, which reads: To collaborate with other ethics agencies both public and private within the State of Washington and the U.S. and Canada for the purposes of information exchange and to consider program improvements for the King County ethics program; to continue development of the Statement of Principles and encourage Washington state jurisdictions to endorse and promote the initiative. The subsequent dialog included whether or not to highlight Canada as a particular country, and affiliated ethics organizations. Ms. Clemens explained that the ethics office is a member of the Northwest Ethics Network (NWEN), an association of private, public and non-profit entities that share ethics-related information and best practices for the benefit of all; and the international Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL). Mr. Laing suggested sharing the Statement of Principles with NWEN membership and Ms. Clemens agreed. Following continued discussion, Mr. Laing moved to approve the 2009 Mission and Goals; Mr. Carlson seconded the motion and the 2009 Mission and Goals were unanimously approved. Mr. Johnson arrived at 1:35 p.m. 5. 2009 Work Plan - Ethics Office and Staff. Ms. Clemens presented the 2009 work plan for the ethics office and staff, which included an overview of the scope of work by month, an outline of the 2009 - 2010 awareness campaign, and the ethics promotion and measurements initiative through Human Resources Division. The board discussed the overall plan as well as the proposed meeting with the executive. Staff agreed to investigate the meeting possibilities and report back. Following additional discussion, Ms. Watanabe moved that the 2009 Work Plan for the Ethics Office and Staff be accepted; Mr. Carlson seconded the motion and the 2009 Work Plan for the Ethics Office and Staff was unanimously accepted. Mr. Quinn arrived at 2:04 p.m. The board and attendees introduced themselves. 6. Determine 2009 Work Plan - Board of Ethics. Ms. Clemens briefed the board to facilitate discussion of its 2009 work plan. The purpose of the Board of Ethics shall be to ensure proper implementation of the code of ethics and to investigate and report on conflicts of interest. [KCC 3.04.090] The authority of the Board of Ethics is to render advisory opinions, in writing, concerning questions of ethics, conflicts of interest, and the applicability of the code of ethics whenever requested by a county officer or employee, or whenever it deems it in the public interest; and to hear appeals from orders of the ombudsman. [K.C.C. 3.04.100 (A)(B)] In addition, the board is informed by its mission and goals when creating its annual work plan. Ms. Clemens provided the board with the 2009 meeting schedule and membership status, as well as information related to the Statement of Principles. Guests Eric Johnson and De'Sean Quinn discussed with the ethics board how the board could work with their respective organizations and/or their memberships in gaining support and participation related to the Statement. Mr. Johnson suggested two WSAC conference opportunities in June and November, using break-out sessions to talk directly with elected officials. He also suggested crafting an adopting resolution with which other jurisdictions could support the statement without signing directly. The board could go directly to individual jurisdictions with a packet including the resolution and the statement. Mr. Quinn suggested that when working with cities, the board should identify key people and start with these smaller individual jurisdictions. Mr. Johnson stated that WSAC as an organization would probably sign on and seek individual county concurrence. He will speak with the WSAC executive board in March for possible adoption. The statement could be adopted at the June conference. Following discussion, the work plan related to the statement of principles included: 1) working with WSAC as an organization to spread the concept to separate jurisdictions or counties; 2) working with cities through individual key personnel to spread the concept to the group level; and 3) seeking adoption of the statement of principles or the creation by other jurisdictions of their own statements or policies using the county's document as an inspiration or template.
The Board of Ethics thanked Mr. Johnson and Mr. Quinn for attending and for their significant contributions to move the initiative forward. Mr. Johnson, Mr. Quinn and Mr. Buck left the meeting at 3:10 p.m. The chair called for a 10 minute break at 3:10 p.m.; the board reconvened at 3:21 p.m. 7. Staff Report. 2009 financial disclosure program. The 2009 annual financial disclosure program began in December, 2008. To date, the highlights of the program are: all directors designated department staff who will manage program; ethics staff held two orientation presentations attended by 29 county staff; all updated board rosters have been delivered to the ethics office. Next steps are: all updated employee rosters shall be delivered to the ethics office by February 2; weekly reports from ethics office to designated staff will begin March 5; and the goal is 100% filing compliance by deadline, April 15, 2009. Filing requirement for candidates. Ms. Clemens described the process by which the ethics office notifies candidates for county elective office of the filing requirement and provided a sample of that correspondence related to the upcoming election for elections director. It was suggested by Mr. Laing that a copy of the reminder letter be sent to the Municipal League since they are a non-partisan organization that rates candidates for office. Ms. Clemens agreed to add that step to the process. Legal counsel to the Board of Ethics. Ms. Clemens announced that Alan Abrams, board counsel since 2003, has taken another position in county government and will no longer be board counsel. She is working the Prosecuting Attorney's Office for a replacement. Staff schedule. Ms. Clemens announced ethics staff schedules in February and that the next meeting of the Board of Ethics will be held on Monday, March 16, 2009. Mr. Carlson moved and Mr. Laing seconded the motion to adjourn the meeting. The board unanimously approved the motion and the meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m. Approved this 20th day of April, 2009, by the King County Board of Ethics. Signed for the Board:__________________________________________________
Dr. Lois Price Spratlen, Chair |
