HomeMy WebLinkAbout4th Qtr 2012
INDEX
State Ethics Commission
Quarterly Rulings for Fourth Quarter 2012
ADVICES (Ethics):
12-565:
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any restrictions upon employment of an
A following termination of employment with
Commonwealth Department B.
12-566 (Houser)
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon an
individual serving as a school director with regard to
participating in discussions, deliberations, or votes
involving a proposed lease or sale of existing unused
school district property to a community based non-
profit group (“Group”), where: (1) the Group would in
turn build and operate a community center (“Center”)
that could be used by the general public, staff, and
students; (2) after the school district school board
voted to enter into a land use agreement with the
Group, the individual began serving on the board of
the Group; and (3) the individual has since resigned
from serving on the board of the Group.
12-567 (Musewicz):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon a
borough council member, who in a private capacity is
the president of a booster club to which the borough
deeded a portion of land for recreational use subject
to a reverter clause, with regard to voting as to
whether the borough should allow the installation of a
cell tower on such land pursuant to a potential lease
agreement between the booster club and Verizon
Wireless.
12-568 (Morton):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any restrictions upon employment of an
Adult Personal Care Homes Licensing Representative
following termination of employment with the
Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (“DPW”).
- 1 -
12-569 (Warren):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon a
borough council member with regard to continuing to
serve on borough council while being an applicant for
the position of borough manager.
12-570 (Dunn):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would require two county commissioners to disclose
on their respective Statements of Financial Interests
transportation and a meal that they received from a
developer in connection with a trip to view a large
commercial recreational and lodging facility owned by
the developer which is similar to a project the
developer might develop in the county.
12-571 (Myers):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee Ethics
Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq., would
impose any restrictions upon employment of a Right-
of-Way Administrator 2 following termination of
employment with the Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation (“PennDOT”).
12-572 (Mutchler):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon the
Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Office of Open
Records (“Office of Open Records”) with regard to
signing a contract with a publishing house to publish a
memoir that is focused on the Executive Director’s
personal life when she was a journalist and campaign
manager and is not related to the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania (“Commonwealth”), government, or the
Office of Open Records.
12-573:
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon an
individual employed as an A with Commonwealth
Department B with regard to: (1) performing [type of
work] on privately funded projects or for Cs while
employed in his current position with Commonwealth
Department B; or (2) performing duties for a privately
owned [type of firm] within one year of resigning from
his current position with Commonwealth Department
B.
- 2 -
12-574:
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any restrictions upon employment of an
A following termination of employment with
Commonwealth Department B.
12-575 (Previte):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any restrictions upon employment of a
Senior Civil Engineer Supervisor – Transportation
following termination of employment with the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
(“PennDOT”).
12-576 (Kindler):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any restrictions upon employment of an
Acting Deputy Secretary of Education following
termination of service with the Pennsylvania
Department of Education.
12-577 (Quick):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon a
member and chairman of a township board of
supervisors, who in a private capacity has a contract
with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
(“PennDOT”) to provide tree removal services, with
regard to participating in or voting on matter(s) before
the township board of supervisors that would involve
PennDOT.
12-578 (Vollbrecht):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any restrictions upon employment of a
Director of the Bureau of Teaching and Learning
within the Pennsylvania Department of Education
following termination of Commonwealth employment.
12-579:
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon an
individual employed as A and B for the C of
Governmental Body D with regard to participating
before executive branch and local government
decision-makers in an E for funding of a proposed F
that might be constructed in close proximity to the
individual’s G.
- 3 -
12-580 (Taylor):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any restrictions upon employment of a
former Park Operations Manager 1 with the
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources (“DCNR”) who, following
retirement from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
has provided services to DCNR as an annuitant under
the 95-day “return to state service” provision at 71
Pa.C.S. § 5706(A.1).
12-581:
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon a
member and [officer] of the board of a [type of
authority] with regard to resigning from his position on
said board to accept a compensated, part-time
position as a [type of position] for said [type of
authority].
12-582 (Schaaf):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon an
individual serving as the Erie County Controller, who
in such public capacity also serves as a Member and
Secretary of the Erie County Employees’ Retirement
Board, with regard to voting on money managers for
the Erie County pension fund, where: (1) in a private
capacity, the individual is an independent financial
advisor with TLG Advisors; (2) the individual and a
broker associated with RBC Wealth Management are
parties to a verbal referral agreement regarding the
individual’s former clients with a prior employer; and
(3) the proposed money managers would have no
affiliations with TLG Advisors or RBC Wealth
Management.
12-583 (Klemow):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon: (1)
a member and chairman of the board of directors of a
city parking authority, who is also the foreman of the
streets department of the city, with regard to
simultaneously serving as the part-time manager of
the city parking authority; or (2) the manager of a city
transit authority, who is also the former manager of
the city parking authority, with regard to
- 4 -
simultaneously serving as the part-time manager of
the city parking authority.
OPINIONS:
12-002 (Conner):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon a
former member of the board of trustees of a charter
school, who is the majority owner of an accounting
and financial services firm which bears her name, with
regard to the firm’s potential provision of financial and
bookkeeping services to the charter school.
12-003 (Zurchin):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon an
individual employed as an assistant superintendent
for a school district, who has co-authored a book, with
regard to purchasing copies of the book directly from
the publisher on behalf of the school district in order
to pass along to the school district a discount
available to the individual as a co-author of the book.
12-004 (Klovensky):
Re: Whether an individual employed by the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a Motor Carrier
Enforcement Officer with the Pennsylvania State
Police under job code 70751 would be considered a
“public employee” subject to the Public Official and
Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101
et seq., and the Regulations of the State Ethics
Commission, 51 Pa. Code § 11.1 et seq., and in
particular, the requirements for filing Statements of
Financial Interests pursuant to the Ethics Act.
ORDERS:
1604 (Raysely):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
1605 (Anderson):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
1606 (Kirkwood):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
1607 (Carner):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
- 5 -
1608 (Clark):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
1609 (Krull):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
ORDERS (Lobbying):
031-SL (WITF, Inc.):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or
deficiency of registration statement(s) and/or expense
report(s) required to be filed pursuant to
Pennsylvania’s lobbying disclosure law, 65 Pa.C.S. §
13A01 et seq., hereinafter referred to as the
“Lobbying Disclosure Law.”
032-SL (JA&T,Inc.):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or
deficiency of registration statement(s) and/or expense
report(s) required to be filed pursuant to
Pennsylvania’s lobbying disclosure law, 65 Pa.C.S. §
13A01 et seq., hereinafter referred to as the
“Lobbying Disclosure Law.”
033-SL (Pitts. Film Off.):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or
deficiency of registration statement(s) and/or expense
report(s) required to be filed pursuant to
Pennsylvania’s lobbying disclosure law, 65 Pa.C.S. §
13A01 et seq., hereinafter referred to as the
“Lobbying Disclosure Law.”
034-SL (PP West. PA):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or
deficiency of registration statement(s) and/or expense
report(s) required to be filed pursuant to
Pennsylvania’s lobbying disclosure law, 65 Pa.C.S. §
13A01 et seq., hereinafter referred to as the
“Lobbying Disclosure Law.”
035-SL (CSM, Inc.):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or
deficiency of registration statement(s) and/or expense
report(s) required to be filed pursuant to
Pennsylvania’s lobbying disclosure law, 65 Pa.C.S. §
13A01 et seq., hereinafter referred to as the
“Lobbying Disclosure Law.”
- 6 -
036-SL (All State Dev.):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or
deficiency of registration statement(s) and/or expense
report(s) required to be filed pursuant to
Pennsylvania’s lobbying disclosure law, 65 Pa.C.S. §
13A01 et seq., hereinafter referred to as the
“Lobbying Disclosure Law.”
037-SL (Orion Land Ser):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or
deficiency of registration statement(s) and/or expense
report(s) required to be filed pursuant to
Pennsylvania’s lobbying disclosure law, 65 Pa.C.S. §
13A01 et seq., hereinafter referred to as the
“Lobbying Disclosure Law.”
038-SL (WAG):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or
deficiency of registration statement(s) and/or expense
report(s) required to be filed pursuant to
Pennsylvania’s lobbying disclosure law, 65 Pa.C.S. §
13A01 et seq., hereinafter referred to as the
“Lobbying Disclosure Law.”
039-SL (S.Fayette Twp.):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or
deficiency of registration statement(s) and/or expense
report(s) required to be filed pursuant to
Pennsylvania’s lobbying disclosure law, 65 Pa.C.S. §
13A01 et seq., hereinafter referred to as the
“Lobbying Disclosure Law.”
- 7 -