HomeMy WebLinkAbout1st Qtr 2014
INDEX
State Ethics Commission
Quarterly Rulings for First Quarter 2014
ADVICES (Ethics):
14-500:
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, who in a private capacity is an attorney and
an A in a law firm which includes various types of
governmental entities among its clients, with regard to
representing such governmental entities or
participating in the law firm’s bid for work from such
governmental entities if the individual would be
elected as a Member of the Pennsylvania legislature.
14-501 (Shirk):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose prohibitions or restrictions upon a
township supervisor with regard to participating in
discussions or votes by the township board of
supervisors pertaining to a project that would
involving paving and/or making other improvements to
the gravel portion of a road, where the township
supervisor’s son owns one of three residential homes
located along such gravel portion.
14-502:
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, if he would be appointed as a part-time A,
with regard to performing the duties of his public
position when: (1) the individual has a B in which he
employs a C; (2) the C’s spouse is employed as a D
at E, which is located in F; (3) as a part-time A, the
individual would serve within F; and (4) Ds and other
employees of E may have to \[perform a certain
activity\] before Gs or the H regarding Is committed by
Js of E.
14-503:
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose restrictions upon employment of an
Assistant to the Secretary for Program and Policy
Initiatives with the Pennsylvania Department of
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Education following termination of Commonwealth
service.
14-504:
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose restrictions upon an individual
employed as an A with Commonwealth Department B
with regard to negotiating and accepting an offer of
employment with a business currently under contract
with the Commonwealth.
14-505 (Barsottini):
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 with regard to performing the duties of his
position as a newly elected borough auditor as to the
year 2013, where the individual served as a borough
council member in 2013.
14-506 (Houser):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose prohibitions or restrictions upon a
school director with regard to participating in
executive sessions, negotiations, or votes pertaining
to a labor contract with the bargaining unit for the
school district’s teachers, where the school director’s
wife is employed as a teacher with the school district
and is a member of the bargaining unit.
14-507:
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee Ethics
Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq., would
impose restrictions upon employment of an A/B
following termination of service with a C D of
Governmental Body E of Political Subdivision F.
14-508 (Rearick):
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 a backup maintenance person
for a borough with regard to simultaneously serving
as a borough council member, where the borough has
a population of less than 3000.
14-509 (Rapp):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose restrictions upon employment of a
Deputy Secretary for Procurement following
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termination of employment with the Pennsylvania
Department of General Services.
14-510 (Kaczmarcik):
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 a school director, who previously
retired from employment with the school district, with
regard to: (1) voting on payments for an early
retirement incentive paid to the individual by the
school district in four equal yearly installments; (2)
voting on payments for the school district’s monthly
medical insurance bill or quarterly life insurance bill,
where the individual receives from the school district
medical insurance coverage for himself and his wife
and a life insurance policy as part of his retirement
package; or (3) serving on school board committees
which deal with the topic of negotiations with the
service personnel and/or teachers of the school
district.
14-511 (Brown):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose restrictions upon employment of a
Transportation Construction Manager 1 following
termination of employment with the Pennsylvania
Department of Transportation (“PennDOT”).
14-512 (Wolbert):
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 who serves as a borough council member
with regard to performing the duties of her public
position, where the individual’s husband was recently
elected as a Constable in the borough.
14-513 (Hutchinson):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose prohibitions or restrictions upon a
school director, who in a private capacity is employed
with the Pennsylvania State University (“Penn State”),
with regard to voting on the sale of a property owned
by the school district where Penn State would be the
purchaser of the property.
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OPIONIONS (Ethics):
13-005-R
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose prohibitions or restrictions upon a State
Legislator serving in the \[Chamber of the General
Assembly\], who is an A of the B of \[name of
educational institution\] (the “Institution”), with regard
to teaching a course on Subject C at the Institution as
a D while serving on the Institution’s B, or receiving
payment for teaching such course, where:
14-001:
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose prohibitions or restrictions upon a State
Legislator serving in the \[Chamber of the General
Assembly\], who in a private capacity is an A, with
regard to including the abbreviation for the title of A
on his legislative letterhead, as part of his signature
line in legislative emails, and on other
legislative/constituent communications.
14-002
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose prohibitions or restrictions upon two As
for \[name of political subdivision\] (“the Political
Subdivision”), Pennsylvania, as to: (1) authorizing the
expenditure of public funds to advocate and educate
residents of the Political Subdivision with regard to
proposed changes to the Political Subdivision’s
current B; or (2) publicly advocating during work hours
with regard to proposed changes to the Political
Subdivision’s current B, where the submitted facts
include that:
14-003 (Corey):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would prohibit Pennsylvania State Representatives
(“State Representatives”) from using public funds to
pay expenses for the following:(1) postage, printing,
the transmission of electronic mail and robotic
telephone calls for otherwise permissible mass
communication to residents of their “new” legislative
districts as determined by the final Reapportionment
Plan of the Legislative Reapportionment Commission
for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
affirmed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court; and/or
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(2) the conduct of town halls, fairs and other types of
events in their “new” legislative districts.
14-004 (Claycomb):
Re: Whether the Public Official and Employee
Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq.,
would impose restrictions upon: (1) a borough
secretary with regard to acting as a consultant to the
borough council following termination of service with
the borough council; or (2) a corresponding secretary
for a municipal authority with regard to acting as a
consultant to the municipal authority board following
termination of service with the municipal authority.
DETERMINATION OF THE COMMISSION:
14-2001 (Alfano):
Re: Whether the service of Pasquale T. Deon, Sr.,
as a Pennsylvania Turnpike Commissioner and Board
Member of the Southeastern Pennsylvania
Transportation Authority and Bucks County Industrial
Development Authority would bring him within the
definition of the term “public official” as set forth in the
Gaming Act at 4 Pa.C.S. § 1512(b), and therefore
cause him to be subject to the restrictions of the
Gaming Act at 4 Pa.C.S. § 1512(a), (a.1) and (a.2).
ORDERS (Ethics):
1624 (Geary):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
1625 (Wiltrout):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
1626 (Keefer):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
1627 (Conti):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
1628 (Stapleton):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
1629 (Short, Jr.):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
1630 (Whitmoyer):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
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1631 (Harvanek):
Re: This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics
Commission
ORDERS (Lobbying):
061-SL (Catapult Learn.):
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.”
062-SL (Aspira Acad.):
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.”
ORDERS (SFI):
422-S (Kawa):
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.
423-S (Amand):
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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