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Home My WebLink About4th Quarter 2023 INDEX State Ethics Commission Quarterly Rulings for Fourth Quarter 2023 ADVICES (Ethics): 23-535-S: (DeLeon): Re: Whether, pursuant to Section 1103(a) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), a member of a township council would have a conflict of interest with regard to voting on a conditional use application that seeks permission to construct a wireless communications facility/cell phone tower on property adjacent to the township council member’s residential property. 23-551 Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq., would impose prohibitions or restrictions upon you, in your capacity as the \[Position\] for the \[Governmental Body\], with regard to accepting an offer from a vendor to cover the cost of your transportation and lodging for making a visit to the vendor’s facilities to inspect the vendor’s facilities and work product in connection with a \[Type of Project\] that the vendor is working on under a contract with the \[Governmental Body\], where you were involved in the process by which the vendor was selected for the project and awarded a contract for the project. 23-552 (Mulvenna): Re: Whether, as an Operations Analyst II with the Philadelphia Parking Authority, you are 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., such that upon termination of your employment with the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the post-employment restrictions of Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act — which apply to former public officials/public employees — would be applicable to you. 23-553 (Reidinger): Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq., would impose restrictions upon you with regard to performing work for your new employer following termination of your employment as a - 1 - Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program Administrator with the Office of the Budget within the Governor’s 23-554 (Waugh): Re: Whether an individual serving as a township supervisor would have a conflict of interest pursuant to Section 1103(a) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), with regard to voting on the transfer of township-owned property to a volunteer fire department of which the individual is a member. 23-555-(LeMano): Re: Whether, following termination of your employment as an Assistant Counsel with the Pennsylvania Department of Health (“Department of Health”), the post-employment restrictions of Section 1103(g) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(g), would prohibit you from representing your new employer in its litigation against the Pennsylvania Department of Education (“Department of Education”). 23-556 (Williamson): Re: Whether an individual serving as a school director for a school district would have a conflict of interest pursuant to Section 1103(a) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), with regard to performing the duties of his public position as a school director as a result of his service, in his private capacity, as a member of the advisory committee for a catholic school located in a different school district. 23-557: Re: Whether, following termination of your employment as the \[Position\] for the \[Political Subdivision\], the post- employment restrictions of Section 1103(g) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(g), would impose prohibitions or restrictions upon you with regard to being appointed as a Member of the \[Governing Body\] of the \[Governmental Entity\]. 23-558-(Optho Cordaro): Re:Whether, as a newly elected Member of Council for Lower Saucon Township (“Township”), you would have a conflict of interest under Section 1103(a) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), with regard to participating in matters before Township Council pertaining to three legal actions initiated against the Township by individuals opposed to the proposed development of a landfill on 275 acres of forestland in the Township, when: (1) in a private capacity, - 2 - you are an officer of Citizens for Responsible Development- LST, an organization which also opposes the proposed landfill and provides financial and other support to the individuals involved in the landfill litigation against the Township; (2) Citizens for Responsible Development-LST is not named as a party in any of the three legal actions nor does it own or have an interest in the forestland at issue; and (3) one of the legal actions is a land use appeal that was filed against the Township by your parents and other Township residents, and the land use appeal does not involve any financial interest specific to your parents’ property in the Township. 23-559: Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq., would impose prohibitions or restrictions upon an individual employed as the \[Position 1\] and \[Position 2\] of the \[Political Subdivision\] as a result of his service as an independent contractor to a vendor that provides \[Type of Services\] to the \[Political Subdivision\]. 23-560 (Ray): Re: Whether, as a newly elected Member of Council for Lower Saucon Township (“Township”), you would have a conflict of interest under Section 1103(a) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), with regard to participating in matters before Township Council pertaining to three legal actions initiated against the Township by individuals opposed to the proposed development of a landfill on 275 acres of forestland in the Township, when: (1) in a private capacity, you are an officer of Citizens for Responsible Development- LST, an organization which also opposes the proposed landfill and provides financial and other support to the individuals involved in the landfill litigation against the Township; and (2) Citizens for Responsible Development- LST is not named as a party in any of the three legal actions nor does it own or have an interest in the forestland at issue. 23-561 (Liekar): Re: Whether an individual serving as a township supervisor would have a conflict of interest under Section 1103(a) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), with regard to voting to appoint his son as a roadmaster for the township, and if so, whether the individual would be permitted to take action to break a tie vote of the other two township supervisors on the appointment of his son as a township roadmaster. - 3 - 23-562 (Walls): Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq., would impose restrictions upon you with regard to performing work for a civil engineering consulting firm following termination of your employment as a Senior Civil Engineer Supervisor — Transportation with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (“PennDOT”). 23-563: Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq., would impose prohibitions or restrictions upon an individual serving as an \[Officer\] for the \[Political Subdivision\] with regard to being employed as the \[Position Title\] of the \[Entity\] following termination of her service as a \[Political Subdivision Officer\]. 23-564 (Jumper-Dillon): Re: Whether a state legislator or his staff would run afoul of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq., if a proposed “pilot program” would be implemented whereby staff of a licensed health care provider would use space in the state legislator’s district office in order to assist constituents by referring them to health care providers for health care services which they may need, where there would be no charge to the licensed health care provider for the use of the space in the district office and no charge to constituents who would use the licensed health care provider’s referral services. 23-566 (Diemer): Re: Whether Section 1103(a) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), pertaining to conflict of interest, would prohibit an individual who has been elected as the Controller for Monroe County (“County”), Pennsylvania, from serving as an officer of one or more organizations that plan, coordinate, or support community events or serving as a volunteer event coordinator. 23-567 (Best): Re: Whether, as the Monroe County Register of Wills/Recorder of Deeds, you would have a conflict of interest under Section 1103(a) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), with regard to appointing as the Solicitor for your public office an attorney who is the sole shareholder of his own professional corporation, where the attorney and your husband are partners in a separate legal entity. - 4 - ORDERS (Ethics): 1821-A (Gogolsky): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission 1821-(Gogolsky): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission 1822-(Harvey): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission 1823-(Erosenko): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission 1824-(Gados): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission 1825-(Castellano): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission 1826-(Morgan): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission 1827-(Oremus): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission 1828-(Friedman): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission Orders (Lobby): 164-SL (Green Stand.): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or deficiency of 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.” ORDERS (SFI): 774-S (Demchuck): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or deficiency of Statement(s) of Financial Interests required to be filed pursuant to Sections 1104 and 1105 of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act ("Ethics Act"), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq. - 5 - 775-S (Stone): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or deficiency of Statement(s) of Financial Interests required to be filed pursuant to Sections 1104 and 1105 of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act ("Ethics Act"), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq. 776-S (Leon): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or deficiency of Statement(s) of Financial Interests required to be filed pursuant to Sections 1104 and 1105 of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act ("Ethics Act"), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq. 777-S (Kitcart): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or deficiency of Statement(s) of Financial Interests required to be filed pursuant to Sections 1104 and 1105 of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act ("Ethics Act"), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq. 778-S (Thomas): Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission as to the alleged delinquency and/or deficiency of Statement(s) of Financial Interests required to be filed pursuant to Sections 1104 and 1105 of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act ("Ethics Act"), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq. - 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