Regular Meeting Minutes
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MEETING LOCATION
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A. Preliminary Business
1. Roll
Call
Meeting commenced at
2. Approval
of Agenda
Vice Chair Akana asked for approval of the meeting agenda. MOTION by Member Scarbrough to approve the agenda. Seconded by Member Yenson. Unanimous approval.
3. Approval
of
Member Yenson proposed an amendment on page 2, Item B., second paragraph, third sentence to include “previous” to “…Member Yenson explained her previous experience….” MOTION made by Member Scarbrough to approve the minutes as amended. Seconded by Member Yenson. Unanimous approval.
Approval of
Vice Chair Akana asked for a Motion to approve the minutes as proposed. MOTION by Member Yenson. Seconded by Member Scarbrough. Unanimous approval.
B. Strategic Plan Update/Board Policies
Vice Chair Akana provided a brief
summary of the Board’s
· The vision, mission, and goals were unchanged: the value were modified to reflect how the Board would like to be viewed as respectful, competent, trustworthy, fair, possessing integrity, and stewards of the Ethics in Public Service Act.
· Consensus was reached on the 14 objectives formerly developed by the Board with the addition of a new objective: educate and inform private stakeholders under Goal No. 2, Fulfill Legislative-Mandated Responsibilities.
· The 15 objectives were agreed upon and prioritized with 9 objectives being designated as the highest priority. The other 6 objectives were grouped into a lower priority.
· The 9 highest priority objectives were further narrowed to the 4 top most – first tier priorities to focus the Board’s resources with the other 5 objectives grouped into a second tier. The 6 lower priority objectives were placed in a third tier.
· From the 4 top most, first tier priorities, the Board scoped a number of activities that could be undertaken to achieve each of the priority objectives.
Member Yenson commented that the Plan would require increased resources to accomplish the Board’s vision. Member Scarbrough said that a lot of work lies in front of the Board indicating that the Board will need to further narrow down the list of activities. There was agreement that the Board would revisit the Plan at its regular meetings. Chair Zellinsky indicated that staff vacancies needed to be filled if implementation of the Plan is to begin soon. MOTION by Member Yenson to adopt the Board’s 2005 Strategic Plan. Member Scarbrough seconded the motion. Unanimous approval.
Vice Chair Akana indicated that the December 10, 2004, Draft Board Member’s Policies needed to have “charter” replaced with “policy” under the section titled “Board Review of Policies”, on page 1. Ms. Akana noted that on page 3, under Policy 4.3(a), last sentence, the Board Secretary needs to be corrected. Member Scarbrough suggested deleting the word “Secretary”. Ms. Akana explained that the citations on page 2 needed to be in parenthesis as was recommended by Member Scarbrough in the drafting of this version.
Member Yenson
suggested that a clean copy of the text would clarify what is being
proposed. Member Golberg noted that the
red-line document allowed her to see what changes had been made since she was
unable to participate throughout the Board’s discussion on
Member Scarbrough referred the Board to page 2 under Policy 1.3 suggesting that the term “philosophy” be replaced with “strategic plan” in the sentence. Member Scarbrough proposed that the first sentence under Policy 1.7 read: “The Board shall deliberate on…” rather than “review” and proposed moving “without the presence of the Executive Director” in the second sentence to the end of the first sentence. On page 3, Policy 2.2(c), Member Scarbrough suggested adding a sentence at the beginning of that paragraph to read: “The Executive Director, in consultation with the Board Chair, shall handle or respond to media inquiries.” Chair Zellinsky said there were some media questions that the Executive Director could handle without consultation, such as requests for public records. Board Counsel Linda Moran suggested that the Board develop written guidance for the Executive Director identifying matters where consultation with the Board Chair would not be necessary. Chair Zellinsky indicated he would assist Ms. Moran in developing guidance.
Member Scarbrough proposed that on page 4, Policy 6.1, the sentence read “The Board will participate…” rather than “cooperate”. Counsel Moran suggested deleting Policy 6.5 on page 4 and changing the title to “Complaints Filed Against Employees in Attorney General’s Office.”
The proposed changes will be made and a revised version of the Policies document will be available for the Board’s review, comment, and approval at next month’s regular meeting.
C. Staff Report
1.
Scheduling of Hearings –
a. EEB Case No.
01-099 (Tjemsland); Reschedule
b. EEB Case No.
03-020 (Meeks);
Legislative
Ethics Board (LEB), Mike O’Connell contacted the Board to indicate that the LEB
is proposing legislation to allow the LEB to address the ethical issue of using
state resources for campaign purposes.
The proposed legislation would be comparable to the EEB’s authority to address
the issue in the executive branch of government.
2. Frequently
Asked Questions -
Mr.
Nakamura reported that the Frequently Asked Question on the issue of political
buttons was re-written addressing the concerns expressed by the Board at its
3. Volume
of Inquiries -
Mr.
Nakamura distributed a copy of documentation illustrating the volume of e-mail
traffic that is received at the Board’s office.
The Board discussed the number of post-employment issues that are raised
by DSHS providers and inquired if DSHS has an internal method of disseminating
information. Mr. Nakamura indicated that
given the number of employees in DSHS that knowledge of the agency and EEB
approval process is not widely known or recognized with only 2 ethics advisors
for the entire agency. Vice Chair Akana
acknowledged that most ethics advisors have a number of duties with ethics
being added to their workload.
4. Agency
Ethics Advisor Roles -
Ethics
Advisor Harvey Gertson, Department of Transportation spoke that as an internal
auditor the audit office had 78 questions last year that had been given
assignment numbers. Kent Nakamura
indicated that the Board staff created a file for written requests received
from state officials and employees. The
Board assigned numbers to requests for the review of grants and contracts. Member Yenson inquired whether telephone
calls where staff provided oral advice or answers to questions were being memorialized. Mr. Nakamura indicated that telephone callers
were asked to put their request in an e-mail message to Board staff so that a
written reply could be provided. Member
Yenson said that any verbal answers to ethics questions needed to be logged by
Board staff with a record of the advice that was provided. Member Yenson asked whether the agency ethics
advisor was sent a carbon copy of the Board staff’s written e-mail reply. Mr. Nakamura responded that not all agencies
have an ethics advisor. Ethics Advisor
Laura Lowe, Department of Ecology, added that sometimes an employee wants to be
anonymous to ensure confidentiality and so the agency would not be
notified.
Member
Yenson asked the other ethics advisors attending the meeting to share what role
they performed with respect to ethics.
Ron Keys with Liquor Control Board said that the agency’s Human Resource
Director served in the capacity of ethics advisor. He indicated that most of the ethics
questions were on the subject of outside employment. Ms. Laura Lowe, Department of Ecology, said
that the agency has a two-tier ethics process with the agency’s Human Resource
Director of Employee Services who was a resource for ethics advice and herself
as a point of contact who also provides ethics training. Ms. Lowe emphasized that her role as an
ethics advisor was just one of her many responsibilities as she is also the
agency’s contracts and grants manager. Brian
Jensen, Department of Information Services, said that his role of ethics
advisor was a small part of his job as well since he is also the agency’s
contracts and grants manager.
Vice
Chair Akana asked the ethics advisors if they were seeing a recurring category
(such as gifts, or computer use on state time) of ethics questions presented to
them or a pattern of commonly-asked questions.
Outside employment contracts was one area identified by some of the
ethics advisors as a general area where they frequently were contacted
about. Ethics Advisor Laura Lowe,
Department of Ecology said that the agency’s Employee Services is planning a
new approach to communicating ethics.
The agency would be sharing with employees a “sterilized” version of an
ethics situation with identifying employee information being redacted. Member Yenson asked if the scenario might
have broader application outside the agency and could be shared. Ms. Lowe said the “sterilized” document would
be broad, and she was willing to share these with any agency that would like to
have them.
5. Ethics
Training -
Member
Yenson stressed that with the incoming administration, the Board needed to
write a letter to directors of agencies offering information and training to
executive level managers on the state’s ethics law. Member Golberg pointed out that the Board
needed to move quickly and that making direct contact with the head of agencies
was a top priority in the Board’s strategic plan. Member Golberg commented that the time is
now, to start at the top of an organization, in hopes that the message would
filter down into the workplace.
6. King
County Ethics Board Meeting -
Vice
Chair Akana indicated that she would be attending the King County Board of Ethics’
Annual Retreat tomorrow,
E. Contract and Private Employment Reviews
There were no contract and private employment reviews for the Board’s consideration.
F. Policy
Reviews
1.
Liquor Control Board
Ron Keys
attended the meeting on behalf of the Liquor Control Board to answer questions
about the agency’s Information Technology proposal. Member Scarbrough asked whether the agency
had considered what would be deminimis use of the internet before setting no
limit. Ron Keys said that the Liquor
Control Board did consider the question and determined that internet use during
a 15-minute break or on the lunch period would be acceptable. Member Yenson asked why the standard of 15
minute break and lunch period was not put in the policy. Mr. Keys replied that given the number of
variables that have to be considered, the Liquor Control Board felt it was best
to leave the decision to management discretion.
Chair
Zellinsky cautioned for the careful crafting of policies. Counsel Linda Moran said that the language in
the Liquor Control Board’s policy was exported from the text that the Attorney
General’s Office provided its client agencies.
While being guidance, Ms. Moran said that the policy provides for
flexibility until case law provides a more specific bright line that can be driven
down in a more direct way. Member Yenson
described how the policy is consistent with the information she received in a
recent ethics class taught by the Board’s trainer Debbie O’Dell for the
Department of Revenue.
Harvey
Gertson said that the Department of Transportation, which has 6,500 employees,
relied upon the Board’s January 2003 meeting minutes where the Board rejected a
policy on internet use. Mr. Gertson said
that the Board sent a policy back to an agency because 15 minutes a day for personal
internet use on a state computer was considered by the Board as exceeding the deminimis
standard. Mr. Gertson said that the
Board viewed five to ten (
Vice
Chair Akana asked whether the Liquor Control Board had a written formal policy
on cell phones as the proposed policy contained a reference to such a policy. Mr. Keys replied that the Liquor Control
Board has an oral policy for cell phone use.
Ms. Akana noted that the Liquor Control Board’s policy on information
technology did not address state-issued cell phones, laptop computers or
PDAs. Mr. Keyes said that these tools
were not presently being made available to employees at the Liquor Control
Board.
Vice
Chair Akana asked that the proposed policy include text on page 2 as a lead in
to the paragraph that reads “LCB employees may make occasional, limited
personal use of the agency’s information technology resources….” to include
“Except for those private uses that are explicitly prohibited above,”. Ms Akana explained that an employee reading
only page 2 of the policy as it is proposed could take it out of context
without the express mention that there are prohibitions identified in the
policy.
Member
Scarbrough moved to approve the Liquor Control Board’s policy with the
modifications proposed by Member Akana including the policy review
recommendations contained in the Board staff’s memorandum to the Board dated
this day. MOTION was seconded and
approved as amended.
2.
There was no one present from the
Member Scarbrough asked whether the College’s ethics policy had been reviewed by the assistant attorney general assigned to the College. Mr. Nakamura did not know the answer. Ms. Scarbrough had several questions about the answers in the “frequently asked questions” attached to the College’s proposal. Ms. Scarbrough’s questions concerned the use of state cell phones and a system of reimbursement requested by an employee; the use of an employee’s title with respect to political campaigns; and the textbook review and acceptance of honarium. Member Golberg noted that there is a distinction between an employee using his or her title when supporting or opposing a candidate for office and when supporting or opposing a political initiative. Ms. Golberg pointed out the answer to loading Quicken on a state computer is simply “no” and would suffice as the answer.
The Board asked the Executive Director Kent Nakamura to let the College know that the proposed policy has been reviewed by the Board and that clarification is needed before the Board can provide its approval. Member Scarbrough recommended that the Board’s concerns be listed and presented to the College for its response. Member Scarbrough asked that Mr. Nakamura inquire of the College whether their assistant attorney general has reviewed the policy. Members Scarbrough and Golberg asked that someone from the College participate in a Board’s meeting when the intent of the language of the Policy has been clarified and resubmitted for the Board’s review and approval.
G. Public Comment/Board Member Comments
The Board thanked the ethics
advisors Brian Jensen, Harvey Gertson, Ron Keys, and Laura Lowe for
contributing their insights on the kinds of ethics questions they come across
in their agencies and their agency process for handling requests for ethics
advice. The Board encouraged the ethics
advisors to continue their participation at subsequent Board meetings and
thanked them for attending today’s meeting.
H. Executive
or Closed Session
At
At
1. EEB Case No. 03-027 (Kim Wheeler)
Board determined that there is reasonable cause to believe a violation of the ethics law has been or is being committed.
2. EEB Case No. 03-082 (Raymond Newcomb)
Board determined that there is reasonable cause to believe a violation of the ethics law has been or is being committed.
3. The Board affirmed the Executive Director’s dismissal in the Victoria Munoz Richart case, EEB Case No. 03-018.
I. Miscellaneous Matters/Adjournment
Meeting
adjourned at