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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-536 WerkheiserEdward J. Werkheiser 151 Nazareth Drive Nazareth, PA 18064 -8723 Dear Mr. Werkheiser: ADVICE OF COUNSEL March 18, 2002 02 -536 Re: Former Public Employee; Section 1103(g); Environmental Protection Compliance Specialist; Bureau of Air Quality; Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. This responds to your letters of November 16, 2001, February 7, 2002, and February 15, 2002, by which you requested advice from the State Ethics Commission. Issue: Whether the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act ( "Ethics Act "), 65 Pa. .S. § 1101 et seq., presents any restrictions upon employment of an Environmental Protection Compliance Specialist following termination of service with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Facts: At the time you submitted your initial letter requesting an advisory from the tate Ethics Commission, you were employed as an Environmental Protection Compliance Specialist with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ( "DEP "), Bureau of Air Quality, Northeast Regional Office. Subsequently, you left DEP and commenced employment in the private sector as a Facility Environmental Manager for "Lafarge North America" ( "Lafarge "). You have submitted copies of your job descriptions and organizational charts for your former position with DEP and for your current position with the Lafarge Whitehall plant, all of which documents are incorporated herein by reference. Your new employer, Lafarge, is a cement manufacturer. Lafarge is regulated by DEP and is subject to periodic Bureau of Air Quality and other program area inspections. You state that during your tenure with DEP, Lafarge was within your regulated work territory. You further state that as a Facility Environmental Manager for Lafarge, you may be required to interact with DEP. Your job duties/responsibilities at Lafarge include, but are not limited to: drafting correspondence on behalf of Lafarge for submission to DEP; accompanying DEP personnel during compliance related inspections; and representing Lafarge during public meetings. You note that some interaction with DEP could involve personnel with whom you worked during your employment with DEP. Werkheiser, 02 -536 March 18, 2002 Page 2 You seek an advisory regarding the restrictions of the Ethics Act that would apply to you as a former Environmental Protection Compliance Specialist for DEP relative to interaction with DEP on behalf of Lafarge. You specifically ask: (1) to what extent the Ethics Act would restrict you as a former Environmental Protection Compliance Specialist for DEP; (2) whether the period of applicability of the restrictions would be one year or otherwise; what types of interaction with DEP would be permissible under the Ethics Act; (4) whether you would be permitted to communicate with DEP representatives or inspectors; whether you would be permitted to accompany and interact with DEP personnel during facility inspections; and (6) whether you would be permitted to sign or use your signature block on correspondence to DEP regarding submissions such as environmental reports, documents, and the like. Discussion: It is initially noted that pursuant to Sections 1107(10) and 1107(11) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. §§ 1107(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 inquiry. 65 Pa.C.S. §§ 1107(10), (11). An advisory only affords a defense to the extent the requestor has truthfully disclosed all of the material facts. (3) (5) In the former capacity as an Environmental Protection Compliance Specialist for DEP, you would be considered a "public employee" subject to the Ethics Act and the Regulations of the State Ethics Commission. See, 65 Pa.C.S. § 1102; 51 Pa. Code § 11.1. This conclusion is based upon the job description, which when reviewed on an objective basis, indicates clearly that the power exists to take or recommend official action of a non - ministerial nature with respect to one or more of the following: contracting; procurement; planning; inspecting; administering or monitoring grants; leasing; regulating; auditing; or other activities where the economic impact is greater than de minimis on the interests of another person. Consequently, upon termination of public service, you became a "former public employee" subject to Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act. While Section 1103(g) does not prohibit a former public official /public employee from accepting a position of employment, it does restrict the former public official /public employee with regard to "representing" a "person" before the governmental body with which he has been associated ": § 1103. Restricted activities (g) Former official or employee. - -No former public official or public employee shall represent a person, with promised or actual compensation, on any matter before the Werkheiser, 02 -536 March 18, 2002 Page 3 governmental body with which he has been associated for one year after he leaves that body. 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(g) (Emphasis added). The terms "represent," "person," and "governmental body with which a public official or employee is or has been associated" are specifically defined in the Ethics Act as follows: § 1102. Definitions "Represent." To act on behalf of any other person in any activity which includes, but is not limited to, the following: personal appearances, negotiations, lobbying and submitting bid or contract proposals which are signed by or contain the name of a former public official or public employee. "Person." A business, governmental body, individual, corporation, union, association, firm, partnership, committee, club or other organization or group of persons. "Governmental body with which a public official or public employee is or has been associated." The governmental body within State government or a political subdivision by which the public official or employee is or has been employed or to which the public official or employee is or has been appointed or elected and subdivisions and offices within that governmental body. 65 Pa.C.S. § 1102. The term "person" is very broadly defined. It includes, inter alia, corporations and other businesses. It also includes the former public employee himself, Confidential Opinion, 93 -005, as well as a new governmental employer. Ledebur, Opinion 95 -007. The term "representation" is also broadly defined to prohibit acting on behalf of any person in any activity. Examples of prohibited representation include: (1) personal appearances before the former governmental body or bodies; (2) attempts to influence; (3) submission of bid or contract proposals which are signed by or contain the name of the former public official /public employee; (4) participating in any matters before the former governmental body as to acting on behalf of a person; and (5) lobbying. Popovich, Opinion 89 -005. Listing one's name as the person who will provide technical assistance on a proposal, document, or bid, if submitted to or reviewed by the former governmental body, constitutes an attempt to influence the former governmental body. Section 1103(g) also generally prohibits the inclusion of the name of a former public official /public employee on invoices submitted by his new employer to the former governmental body, even though the invoices pertain to a contract that existed prior to termination of public service. Shay, Opinion 91 -012. However, if such a pre - existing contract does not involve the unit where the former public employee worked, the name of the former public employee may appear on routine invoices if required by the regulations of the agency to which the billing is being submitted. Abrams/Webster, Opinion 95 -011. A former public official /public employee may assist in the preparation of any documents presented to his former governmental body. However, the public Werkheiser, 02 -536 March 18, 2002 Page 4 official /public employee may not be identified on documents submitted to the former governmental body. The public official /public employee may also counsel any person regarding that person's appearance before his former governmental body. Once again, however, the activity in this respect should not be revealed to the former governmental body. The Ethics Act would not prohibit or preclude making general informational inquiries to the former governmental body to secure information which is available to the general public, but this must not be done in an effort to indirectly influence the former governmental body or to otherwise make known to that body the representation of, or work for the new employer. Section 1103(g) only restricts the former public official /public employee with regard to representation before his former governmental body. The former public official /public employee is not restricted as to representation before other agencies or entities. However, the "governmental body with which a public official /public employee is or has been associated" is not limited to the particular subdivision of the agency or other governmental body where the public official /public employee had influence or control but extends to the entire body. See, Legislative Journal of House, 1989 Session, No. 15 at 290, 291; Sirolli, Opinion 90 -006; Sharp, Opinion 90- 009 -R. The governmental body with which you have been associated upon termination of public service is DEP in its entirety. Therefore, for the first year after termination of service with DEP, Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act would apply and restrict "representation" of "persons" before DEP. Having set forth the restrictions of Section 1103(g), the six questions that you posed shall now be addressed. In response to your first and second questions, you are advised that for the first year following termination of your service with DEP, Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act would prohibit you from engaging in conduct that would constitute "representation" of Lafarge before DEP. In response to your third, fourth, fifth, and sixth questions, you are advised as follows. During the one -year period of applicability of Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act, you would be prohibited from communication /interacting with DEP, DEP inspectors, DEP representatives, or DEP personnel on behalf of Lafarge. You would be prohibited from accompanying or interacting with DEP inspectors or other DEP personnel during facility inspections. You would likewise be prohibited from signing or using your signature block on correspondence or other documents submitted to DEP on behalf of Lafarge. All such activities would constitute prohibited representation before DEP. The Ethics Act would not prohibit you from making general informational inquiries to DEP to secure information which is available to the general public, but this could not be done in an effort to indirectly influence DEP or to otherwise make known to DEP your representation of, or work for, Lafarge. Based upon the facts which have been submitted, this Advice has addressed the applicability of Section 1103(g) only. It is expressly assumed that there has been no use of authority of office for a private pecuniary benefit as prohibited by Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act. Further, you are advised that Sections 1103(b) and 1103(c) of the Ethics Act provide in part that no person shall offer to a public official /public employee and no public official /public employee shall solicit or accept anything of monetary value based upon the understanding that the vote, official action, or judgment of the public official /public 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. Lastly, the propriety of the proposed conduct has only been addressed under the Ethics Act; the applicability of any other statute, code, ordinance, regulation, or other Werkheiser, 02 -536 March 18, 2002 Page 5 code of conduct other than the Ethics Act has not been considered in that they do not involve an interpretation of the Ethics Act. Conclusion: In the former capacity as an Environmental Protection Compliance Specialist with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ( "DEP "), Bureau of Air Quality, Northeast Regional Office, you would be considered a "public employee" as defined in the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act ( "Ethics Act "), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq. Upon termination of service with DEP, you became a "former public employee" subject to Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act. The former governmental body is DEP in its entirety. The restrictions as to representation outlined above must be followed. The propriety of the proposed conduct has only been addressed under the Ethics Act. Further, should service be terminated, as outlined above, the Ethics Act would require that a Statement of Financial Interests be filed by no later than May 1 of the year after termination of service. Pursuant to Section 1107(11), an 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, provided 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. Sincerely, Vincent J. Dopko Chief Counsel