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HomeMy WebLinkAbout97-629 HenryDr. Larry R. Henry Superintendent Karns City Area School District Office of the Superintendent 1446 Kittanning Pike Karns City, PA 16041 STATE ETHICS COMMISSION 309 FINANCE BUILDING P.O. BOX 11470 HARRISBURG, PA 17108 -1470 TELEPHONE (717) 783 -1610 ADVICE OF COUNSEL December 3, 1997 97 -629 Re: Conflict, Public Official /Employee, School Board, Use of Authority of Office or Confidential Information, Immediate Family, Spouse, Negotiations, Collective Bargaining Agreement. Dear Dr. Henry: This responds to your letter of October 29, 1997 by which you requested advice from the State Ethics Commission. Issue: Whether the Public Official and Employe Ethics Law presents any prohibition or restrictions upon a Member of a School Board, whose spouse is employed by the School District as a part -time Title I professional employee, from participating in negotiations regarding a collective bargaining agreement. Facts: As Superintendent of the Karns City Area School District, you request an advisory from the State Ethics Commission. You ask whether you may serve as a negotiator for the School District in its upcoming negotiations with the Karns City Area Education Association. Because of your position as Superintendent, you serve as an ex- officio non - voting member of the School Board pursuant to the Public School Code. Your wife is employed by the District as a part-time Title I professional employee, teaching remedial reading, and is a member of the bargaining unit of the professional employees at the School District. Your wife does not pay dues to the PSEA (the union representing the professional employees), however, she is subject to "fair share" payments under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Discussion: It is initially noted that pursuant to Sections 7(10) and 7(1 1) of the Public Official and Employe Ethics Law ( "Ethics Law "), 65 P.S. §§407(10), (11), advisories are issued to the requestor based upon the facts which the requestor has submitted. In issuing the advisory based upon the facts which the requestor has submitted, the Commission does not engage in an independent investigation of the facts, nor does it speculate as to facts which have not been submitted. It is the burden of the requestor to truthfully disclose all of the material facts relevant to the Henry, 97 -629 December 3, 1997 Page 2 inquiry. 65 P.S. § §407(10), (11). An advisory only affords a defense to the extent the requestor has truthfully disclosed all of the material facts. As Superintendent of the Karns City Area School District, you would be considered a public employee subject to the Ethics Law. Section 3(a) of the Ethics Law provides: Section 3. Restricted Activities. (a) No public official or public employee shall engage in conduct that constitutes a conflict of interest. The following terms are defined in the Ethics Law as follows: Section 2. Definitions. "Conflict or conflict of interest." Use by a public official or public employee of the authority of his office or employment or any confidential information received through his holding public office or employment for the private pecuniary benefit of himself, a member of his immediate family or a business with which he or a member of his immediate family is associated. "Conflict" or "conflict of interest" does not include an action having a de minimis economic impact or which affects to the same degree a class consisting of the general public or a subclass consisting of an industry, occupation or other group which includes the public official or public employee, a member of his immediate family or a business with which he or a member of his immediate family is associated. "Authority of office or employment." The actual power provided by law, the exercise of which is necessary to the performance of duties and responsibilities unique to a particular public office or position of public employment. "Immediate family." A parent, spouse, child, brother or sister. Use of authority of office is more than the mere mechanics of voting and encompasses all of the tasks needed to perform the functions of a given position. See, Juliante, Order No. 809. Use of authority of office includes, but is not limited to, discussing, conferring with others, lobbying for a particular result, and voting. In addition, Sections 3(b) and 3(c) of the Ethics Law provide in part that no person shall offer to a public official /employee anything of monetary value and no public official /employee shall solicit or accept anything of monetary value based upon the understanding that the vote, official action, or judgement of the public official /employee would be influenced thereby. Reference is made to these provisions of the law not to imply that there has been or will be any transgression thereof but merely to provide a complete response to the question presented. Henry, 97 -629 December 3, 1997 Page 3 Section 3(j) of the Ethics Law provides as follows: Section 3. Restricted activities (j) Where voting conflicts are not otherwise addressed by the Constitution of Pennsylvania or by any law, rule, regulation, order or ordinance, the following procedure shall be employed. Any public official or public employee who in the discharge of his official duties would be required to vote on a matter that would result in a conflict of interest shall abstain from voting and, prior to the vote being taken, publicly announce and disclose the nature of his interest, as a public record in a written memorandum filed with the person responsible for recording the minutes of the meeting at which the vote is taken, provided that whenever a governing body would be unable to take any action on a matter before it because the number of members of the body required to abstain from voting under the provisions of this section makes the majority or other legally required vote of approval unattainable, then such members shall be permitted to vote if disclosures are made as otherwise provided herein. In the case of a three - member governing body of a political subdivision, where one member has abstained from voting as a result of a conflict of interest, and the remaining two members of the governing body have cast opposing votes, the member who has abstained shall be permitted to vote to break the tie vote if disclosure is made as otherwise provided herein. If a conflict exists, Section 3(j) requires the public official /employee to abstain and to publicly disclose the abstention and reasons for same, both orally and by filing a written memorandum to that effect with the person recording the minutes or supervisor. In applying the above provisions of the Ethics Law to the circumstances you have submitted, pursuant to Section 3(a) of the Ethics Law, a public official /public employee is prohibited from using the authority of public office /employment or confidential information received by holding such a public position for the private pecuniary benefit of the public official /public employee himself, any member of his immediate family, or a business with which he or a member of his immediate family is associated. In this case, it is clear that your spouse is a member of your "immediate family." The seminal Commission decision which applies Section 3(a) under facts similar to those which you have submitted, is Van Rensler, Opinion 90 -017. The issue in Van Rensler was whether the Ethics Law prohibited school directors from participating on a negotiating team and voting on a collective bargaining agreement where members of their immediate families were school district employees who were represented by the bargaining units. The Commission concluded that the Ethics Law would not restrict the school directors from voting on the finalized agreement, but that the school directors could not take part in the negotiations leading to the finalized agreement. Henry, 97 -629 December 3, 1997 Page 4 The Commission held that the school directors could vote on the finalized agreement because of the exclusion in the definition of "conflict or conflict of interest" which applies if the immediate family member is a member of a subclass consisting of an industry, occupation or other group containing more than one member and the immediate family member would be affected exactly as the other members of the subclass. The Commission held that as long as the two prerequisites for applying the exclusion were met, the school directors could vote on the final collective bargaining agreement. However, the Commission held that the Ethics Law precluded the participation of such school directors in the negotiation process. In so holding, the Commission noted that the negotiation process would be free of any influence of such a school director and that the potential for the use of confidential information would be "minimized if not eliminated ". Id, at 4 -5. Thus, a fundamental focus of the Van Rensler Opinion was precluding the use of confidential information obtained through the public office as school director to defeat the bargaining process. Mattie, Advice No. 91 -508, applied the Van Rensler principles to a situation where collective bargaining was taking place coincidentally with budget preparations. Per the submitted facts, some of the budgetary information which was to be provided to the school directors would show proposed changes for total salary and fringe benefits as well as categorized information regarding proposed increases or decreases in salaries. Furthermore, information was to be provided by the negotiating team to the administration which information would be used by the administration in preparing financial figures for the proposed budget. The Advice concluded that a school director with such a conflict could receive general financial information for the proposed budget which information did not impact upon the negotiation process with the bargaining unit. However, such a school director could not receive any financial information related to the budget which would impact upon the negotiation process with the bargaining unit, including but not limited to line -by -line items such as salaries or specific information from which one could deduce line -by -line items. The school director could not receive information regarding the background of negotiations or the analysis of negotiations at any time. However, the School Director could have access to information once it became public. Even though you as Superintendent are a non - voting ex- officio member of the School Board, the concerns expressed by the Commission in Van Rensler about confidential information still exist. Accordingly, you are advised that under Section 3(a) of the Ethics Law, you would be precluded from participating as a negotiator for the School Board, given that your spouse is a member of the bargaining unit of the professional employees in the School District. The propriety of the proposed conduct has only been addressed under the Ethics Law; the applicability of any other statute, code, ordinance, regulation or other code of conduct other than the Ethics Law has not been considered in that they do not involve an interpretation of the Ethics Law. Specifically not addressed herein is the applicability of the Public School Code. Conclusion: As Superintendent for the Karns City Area School District, you are a public employee subject to the provisions of the Ethics Law. Pursuant to Section 3(a) of the Ethics Law, you may not participate in negotiations or receive confidential information regarding the contract negotiations. You may receive such information Henry, 97 -629 December 3, 1997 Page 5 when it is no longer confidential and is available to the public. The restrictions and prohibitions set forth above must be followed. Lastly, the propriety of the proposed conduct has only been addressed under the Ethics Law. Pursuant to Section 7(11), this Advice is a complete defense in any enforcement proceeding initiated by the Commission, and evidence of good faith conduct in any other civil or criminal proceeding, providing the requestor has disclosed truthfully all the material facts and committed the acts complained of in reliance on the Advice given. This letter is a public record and will be made available as such. Finally, if you disagree with this Advice or if you have any reason to challenge same, you may appeal the Advice to the full Commission. A personal appearance before the Commission will be scheduled and a formal Opinion will be issued by the Commission. Any such appeal must be in writing and must be actually received at the Commission within thirty (30) days of the date of this Advice pursuant to 51 Pa. Code §13. 2(h). The appeal may be received at the Commission by hand delivery, United States mail, delivery service, or by FAX transmission (717- 787 - 0806). Failure to file such an appeal at the Commission within thirty (30) days may result in the dismissal of the appeal f in cerely, cent '"opko Chief Counsel