WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=zjZ1Ix41hcE

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: zjZ1Ix41hcE):
- 00:00:00: Introduction to Ethics Act and Conflicts of Interest
- 00:05:57: Nepotism Rules and Examples of Use of Office
- 00:08:08: Video Example: Nepotism and Influence in Hiring
- 00:13:08: Use of Government Assets and Another Video Example
- 00:15:24: Video Example: Misuse of Township Resources
- 00:18:25: Abstaining From Votes, Gifts and Hospitality
- 00:20:00: Video Example: Ethics Violations with Gifts and Favors
- 00:23:41: Improper Influence, Honorarium, Revolving Door Rules
- 00:26:41: Ethics Commission Advice, Investigations, and Penalties
- 00:31:32: Criminal Prosecution, Financial Interest Video Intro
- 00:32:27: Video Example: Financial Interest Forms
- 00:34:13: Financial Interest Forms: Filing, Instructions, and Penalties
- 00:41:34: Conclusion, Questions, and Adjournment
- 00:41:51: Council Comments
- 00:41:51: Mayor/Administration Comments
- 00:42:11: Public Comments


Part: 1

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behavior police. We can't control what somebody posts on f Facebook. We can't control whether people are nice to each other. Um what we control is when people use their position to make money on the side. So a public employee would have to

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do with procurement or uh contracting, planning, zoning, um inspecting, licensing. um if anybody has little kids, it's all those action verbs that we deal with. Okay. So,

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the reason that comes into play is just because you work for a government entity does not make you a public employee. So, for example, with a school district, your superintendent, your business manager, they're going to be public

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employees. Your teachers are not. Our biggest violation comes under the conflict of interest rule and it's a very very large term and what it really comes down to are these bullet points

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you see on the screen. So it's using your office. So it has to be something that you do by virtue of having the public office or the public employment that you have to make money

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and to make money for either yourself, a member of your immediate family or a business that you or a member of your immediate family is associated with. For this part of the act, immediate family

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is spouse, parent, child or sibling. And when we talk about private uh pecuniary benefit, it doesn't necessarily have to be profit. So there was a case that we had where a council

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person or supervisor also owned a used car dealership and the township was looking to buy a car and instead of using municipond or any of the other um you know doing a bid advertising any of

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that the township supervisor said well I got one on my lot and he sold it to the township and it came before us and they said you're not supposed to do that. One, you can't contract with your governmental

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body. And two, you used your position to guide this sale to go to your dealership. And what happened there was his uh defense. He had a hearing and his defense was, "I lost money on this. That

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car was sitting on my lot for 14 months. And when you count what I put into it and what I received, I gave the township a break. I lost money. And the commission ruled that you mitigated your loss and that was a financial gain.

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Um that person appealed that and it went to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania where they sided with the commission and said yes, mitigation of loss under the ethics act is a financial gain. So there are some exceptions to that

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rule and uh to this conflict of interest rule. Um one is actions having a deminimous economic impact and that one is actually the hardest to explain because people really don't like it. Um,

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what it is is if you if you get pulled over and you use your authority of the office and you get out of a $50 speeding ticket, that's not something we would investigate. Under the law, that would be a

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deminimous financial gain. Courts have actually ruled that up to $500 of a financial gain is dimminimous. Um now the other one is we call it class subclass

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and an example was that uh in Adams County there was a uh county commissioner there was a zoning ordinance that said you can't um use your private land and engage with a

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solar panel company for those solar panel farms that you see because what they would do is these solar panels companies would engage in leases with private owners. And these leases were like, I don't know, $100,000, $120,000,

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way, way, way past dimminimus. And what this person did was vote to change the zoning ordinance so he could engage in a contract with the zone with the uh solar panel company.

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And this was brought before the commission. and he was found not to have violated the ethics act because of this exception. They said everybody else who's similarly situated could also then engage

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into a contract with the solar panel company. That what he did didn't just benefit him, it benefited everybody else in that same class, for lack of a better word in that who was similarly situated. And um the

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subclass is really just kind of more specific than that. And really what that exception entails or what it covers is that people serve where they live. So whatever vote you may decide to to vote

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to do, it may benefit you financially. As long as it does that to the same degree that it benefits everybody else who's who's similarly situated, then that's not a violation of the ethics act.

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So, nepotism because we heard that you can't use your position to benefit your immediate family member. So, when could my child work at the state ethics commission? When I have nothing to do with it. I can't supervise.

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I can't hire. I can't promote. You can have nothing to do with um getting your child that or your immediate family member that job. Um and there was a case that kind of bounced

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around in the courts and it went up to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. And part of the argument was, well, is this just an anti-epotism statute? And the commission in its argument said, "Yeah, kind of. You can't use your position to

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benefit your child." Um, the other thing that it talked about, and we're going to get to a video here shortly, the other thing that that case talked about was what is use of office. So, it's not just a vote, because our elected officials do much more than

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that, right? they have the ability to sway votes. So in that case, the one that went up to the Supreme Court, Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the person worked behind the scenes to change the township handbook to get rid of the

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anti-epatism policy. And then when it came time to vote on that change, he said, "Well, I abstain because I can't. It's a conflict of interest." And the court said, "No, you had access. You worked behind the scenes. You went to your fellow

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supervisors in a way that a citizen could not and lobbyed to get this change happen. So you can't just say I abstain at the finish line if you worked behind the scenes to make something happen.

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So I'm going to show a video. These videos were created by um another state agency. They kind of have the same characters floating around, but you just have to pretend you've never seen them before. Um, because it's all animated.

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So, and that'll kind of explain what I'm talking about. Also, all of these videos are loosely based on real cases. Action. Oh, maybe it won't. I even checked before we got started. Let me see.

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Uh, here we go. Sorry, we checked before we got started on this. >> Now we need to turn >> Oh, because your volume's down on my >> Okay, let me see if I can Oh, I have to go to the Goto and

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>> Sure. Go ahead. >> Yeah. >> Oh. Glad I could figure your dad out. Try it. I have not. >> Hey, how things going? Good. How about you? I'm doing too. It's been

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an interesting first learning ropes. I didn't realize Hey, Chief. How have things been going? >> Good. Just trying to keep our heads above water. How about you? >> I'm doing good, too. It's been an interesting first year as Burough Mayor learning the ropes. I didn't realize

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that even the chief of police reports to me. Convenient for getting out of those speeding tickets. Hey, do you remember my son, Bill? All-star quarterback. He took the high school team to states twice. He's a bit of a legend around these parts. Basically put this little town on the map. Yeah, I've heard of

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him. Isn't he an officer in the city? >> Well, he was an officer in the city. Got in a little hot water after some evidence and cash were apparently missing from a few of his cases, and the brass didn't take kindly to it. Bunch of politically correct nonsense in my

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opinion. Anyway, he's moving back here with his wife and kids, which brings me to why I stopped by. Bill's looking for work, and I know you're looking to hire. He's a great officer. Think he could offer him a job? We do have a couple vacant spots, but applications were due

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last week and we got a lot of good candidates. Come on, chief. Surely you can make an exception for an old friend and the town hero. Sir, you know how we do things by the book here. >> And chief, you know your own contract is up for renewal. And I have the final say

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on whether you continue as chief. I hope we understand each other. >> I understand you perfectly. He's a joke. All right. >> Oh.

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>> Oh. >> Okay. All right. How How's this everybody? Good. Okay. use of government assets. So another way to use your office is use of government assets. So an example of that

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is uh we had a case with somebody from PennDOT who was a surveyor and he had his own surveying business and he filled out the right forms, told the right people. There was no problem with that. The problem was that he would uh on the

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weekends and the evenings take pendot equipment home and use it in his uh surveying business. He also used the pendot subs GPS subscription. So that was an example of a use of

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office even though it's no voting or no um official action. he the use of the government assets created an extremely big financial gain. Um he entered into an agreement with us and is in the

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process or having just paid off uh $62,000 to the state for this. So it's kind of um these things can add up and we'll get into the penalties and restitution and all of that shortly. Um oh boy, here's

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another video. I think that's right. I think I got it. I want to mute. >> What? >> Volume up. >> Volume. I'm sorry. >> I think you right.

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Hey, Chuck. I was just stopping by to see how things are going with the township paving project. The other township supervisors and I were just talking about how great the roads look. >> Thanks, boss. About another week or so and it should be done. >> That's great. Ahead of schedule and

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under budget, just how we like it. So, I was wondering, is there any chance there's any leftover paving materials? You know what you would just throw away? >> Uh, I think we overestimated a bit when we ordered it. >> Uh, listen, Chuck, you did such a great job with the road in front of my house.

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It's making my driveway look terrible. Any chance the crew could come by quick and fix up my driveway, too. You know, with the leftover material. >> Um, sure. We could do it after hours some evening. >> No, I don't want to get into paying

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overtime and all that. Just call it an early day some afternoon and swing by on your way back to the township garage. No need to make a special trip. Chuck, I really appreciate you taking care of my driveway. The wifey loves it and you really earned me some points.

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>> Ah, you're welcome, boss. >> I have a huge favor to ask you, Chuck. You know, I have all those trees in my backyard. Well, a few fell during the storm last week, and I need to clear them out. The problem is I hurt my back a few years ago and you know I'm not as young as I once was. A backhoe would

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sure make things easier on me. >> Well, I think the hardware store has backho for rent. >> That would cost me a fortune, Chuck. And we have one here that's just sitting in the garage. Any chance I could just borrow it for this quick job? >> Boss, it's not easy to use. And you know

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it's for township use only. >> No problem, Chuck. I worked construction in high school. I know what I'm doing. I'll use it this weekend and bring it back before Monday morning. No one will even know it's gone. Just leave me the garage key. Hey, Chuck. Uh, sorry to call you on a

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Sunday. Uh, but I had a bit of an accident with the backhoe. I was heading back to take care of those trees and forgot to lower the arm. I knocked down a power line. Yeah, that's probably why the power's out in town. There's a good amount of damage here and

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I need to call the power company. But Chuck, just so we have our story straight, I was doing work for the township when this happened, right? That way the township's insurance should cover it. I can't afford to pay for this mess out of pocket. And Chuck, no one

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needs to know what really happened. do that. How are we? >> Think we're good. All right. >> Got it down to >> getting the hang of it. Um, so that was a true story, that one. >> Uh,

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yes. Let me see if I can >> Yeah. Click those little in buttons. Yep. Okay, just trying to get to the next slide. There we go. All right. So, what do you do if you have a conflict? Abstain and

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publicly announce why you're abstaining. Um, people who are elected officials can't just decide not to vote. They have to give a reason. Um, there should also be a written memo that goes with the meeting minutes to explain why the

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person is abstaining. Um, gifts, travel, lodging, and hospitality. Just check something here. Okay, next one's a video. So, let me talk for a few minutes. So, when can a state or local

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official, not counting any other local ordinance or anything or can a state a local official accept gifts? Anybody think yes? >> Yeah, they can. True. No strings

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attached gifts are permissible. Again, absence any local ordinance. Um, where the problem comes into play is when there's official action as a result of that. The other problem comes into play is when it's not declared on your

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statement of financial interest. Um, so I am going to start jumping a little bit with these videos out of the interest of time, but the next one is actually one of the better ones and explains it really well. So I would like to do the

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next one. >> Oh, wait for >> Hey, look what just arrived. Ooh, how nice. Who's it from? >> Uh, a vendor from the food service contract at school. The note says, "Dear Mr. O'Donnell, we hope you enjoy this

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sample of our delicious and nutritious food that our company hopes to provide the students of Suburban School District. Best wishes, Bobby Hamilton, CEO, Hamilton Food Service." >> Well, that is so very nice of him. >> You know, I'm going to give him a call

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to thank him. I just got off the phone with Bobby. What a great guy. He's so down to earth. Seems like the kind of guy you could grab a beer with. Did you know he's a huge Eagles fan? >> Wow. You must have a lot in common then. >> I know. He invited me down for a tour of

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his plant to get a better sense of what they can offer. And get this, how would you like to see the Eagles play this Sunday? He has two extra tickets. >> That's awesome. I've been hoping to see them play all year and I would love to go. It seems like that Bobby might be a

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good friend to have. >> Bobby, thank you so much for inviting us to the game. When Tom said Eagles tickets, I had no idea we'd be watching the game in style from these box seats. And all the food and drinks were wonderful. The only thing that could

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have made this better is an Eagles win. It was definitely a disappointing loss, but I'm so glad you could come. It was great to meet you, and I hope we can make these games a regular thing. Hey, Tom, before you go, I understand the vote on the food service contract is

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Tuesday. Any idea where things stand? >> Well, you know, there's a lot of competition, but I'd say things are looking pretty good for you. >> That's great. I knew I could count on your support. Also, we want to give you a little something for your favorite charity.

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Well, isn't that nice of you? Thank you. >> I'll take that. I know exactly which charity this is going to. Our children's college fund job. >> All right. So,

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um there's a lot in that one. One of which is um whether there's actually an ethics violation there. So, so far we didn't have any official vote on the food service contract. So, so far our school director who gets the free

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tickets and the fruit basket and all of that has not violated the ethics act. he could go in there and vote totally differently. Um, second of all, fruit basket. That's probably going to be dimminimous. Um, now once we get to the box seats,

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the food, the drinks, the envelope of cash, um, now assuming that he votes and assuming that guy gets the contract, now we have an ethics violation. Um, now we are a statewide agency, so we have an

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office in Pittsburgh. So, I didn't create these videos, but I kind of imagine that they were like, "What should we do? Eagles, Steelers. Let's do the Eagles, but we'll have them lose, and that way we'll keep the Pittsburgh people happy." So, what happened in that

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case, um, that leads us to the improper influence. There's one part of the Ethics Act that applies to everybody regardless of whether they're an elected official, regardless of whether they're a public employee,

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and that's um soliciting like basically offering a bribe. So that guy Bobby Hamilton, we could look into him for that. Um now once you receive it, that's something we only have on the elected official.

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um other and now we're getting into some other restricted activities. One is honorarium. So you'll see the definition up there and it's kind of I I've been told it doesn't really make a lot of sense. And

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basically what it means is this. After I'm done here, you can't pay me. I'm being paid by the state to do this. This is my job. Um, if I were to come here in the evenings, if I were to come here in the mornings, as long as I'm

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talking about the ethics act as part of my job, you can't I can't accept any money. Now, it doesn't mean public officials and public employees can't do any speaking engagements. I happen to be be a big hockey fan. So, if you wanted

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to invite me back to talk for a couple hours about the playoffs and you wanted to pay me to do that, we could do that. Um, and also feel free to contact me if you guys want to do that. Revolving door.

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So, this goes into um effect when you leave public office and public employment. You can't come back within a year and represent a person. By person, they mean company or business and you can't get

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paid for it. And here's what that's meant to prevent really is um we get this from some of the bigger state agencies like uh PENDOT again for example, they work with a lot of engineers so and engineering firms. And

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what'll happen is they'll say, "Hey, great working with you. we'd like to offer you a job. Public employee says, "Fabulous. Let's go." And then a month or two later, they submit a proposal and their name's all over it. That's still

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basically using your office even though you've left office. So, for one year, you can't do it. Now, you could work on the proposal. You can't have your name all over it. The idea is that you don't get a leg up from your public

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employment. I am going to skip some of these videos in the interest of time. Advices and opinions. So this is one of the best services we offer. If you are subject to the act or you

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represent somebody subject to the act and you want to make a vote in a couple months, you want to make um enter into an agreement, you want to sell something to your entity. Before you do it, if you write out what

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you want to do and you include who you are and your current position, send it into the commission. you'll get an advice of counsel in writing saying yes, you can do this or no, you can't and here's why and that'll protect you

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from any future investigation or anything like that. These are also opinions of the commission. So, for example, if you get this advice of council and they say you can't do that and you're like, I'm pretty sure I can. Um, you can ask the

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commission to issue an opinion. Our advice is issued by our chief counsel. Um the the commission will also issue an opinion if they get some from like the higherups like um you know a state

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senator or something or they get same the same questions over and over again. It just carries a little more weight when it comes from our commissioners. Um, now it has to be for future conduct because if you write in like a two-page

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letter about stuff you did last week, that could be viewed as a confession and it could be given to us in the investigative division. So, it's for future conduct investigations. So, all of our

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investigations begin with a complaint. Um, we do have the ability to do what we call an own motion. So we could read about something in the paper, somebody could call us, another state agency could refer something to us and we can

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open up an own motion, but mostly it's a complaint that has to be signed and sworn before a notary and uh the complainant remains confidential throughout. The commission uh and commission staff are prohibited

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by law from saying who the complainant is. all of our um I'm sorry. So once we get that, if it if it meets our criteria, if it shows on its face a violation of the Ethics Act, we can open a preliminary

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inquiry and our investigator would have 60 days to determine whether there's reason to believe the act has been violated. At that point, if they say yes, the target or what we call the respondent, because we're administrative, we're not

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criminal. The respondent then gets notified. And we have 180 days to come up with a final product, which we call our investigative complaint. We can issue subpoenas. We can get bank

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records, phone records. We can interview people. We can uh put them under oath. All of that all of that paperwork that we generate is confidential. We're not subject to right to know. Um and the

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only public thing at the only thing the public sees is the final order. And that is an order that basically lists the facts and says this is how the person violated the ethics act if they

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did and here's why. Um, that order is appealable to Commonwealth Court. As an administrative agency, nobody goes to jail from us. The act itself does carry criminal penalties. That has to be

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brought by either the attorney general's office or a local district attorney's office. What we do is issue a public order and that'll say so and so violated the state ethics act conflict of interest provision and list the who, what, where,

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when, why, and how. The restitution goes to the local entity. So, for example, if you used your um public position and you made $5,000, we can enter into a settlement agreement

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instead of going to a hearing where we may say, "Okay, pay back $3,000." And you can say, "Okay." And that 3,000 goes back to the local municipality. It doesn't go to the state. It doesn't go to we to us. Um the idea is that the

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local municipality is being reimbursed for what was taken. If it's particularly egregious, the commission can order treble penalties. So that 5,000 can become 15,000.

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The commission can also refer it to a criminal uh to for criminal prosecution. And that's just where the commission says we recommend that you look into this. Um and then we have the statements of financial interests. Um so we do have

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a video about that and again that one is what we see a lot of the time. So I am going to play that one >> after after the video. Yes, that's right. They're called statements of financial interests, and all public officials and public

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employees must file them by May 1st each year and the year after leaving public service. Yes, they are publicly available. >> Sure, I could get you copies of them. >> You need the past 5 years for all three

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commissioners? Sure. Could you give me until tomorrow to pull everything together? I'll scan them in and send them to you via email. Okay. Thank you. Goodbye. Hi, Janice. It's Kristen. Mhm. >> Listen, we just had a call from a

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reporter asking for all the statements of financial interests for the commissioners for the past 5 years. You never filed yours for 2021, which was due by May 1st. No, you didn't file it. Remember, I had to remind you several times and you

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still never got it done. >> Okay, I'll see you this afternoon. Here's the form, Janice. >> Thanks, Kristen. As usual, you're saving my neck again. >> Here you go, Kristen.

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>> Janice, this is signed May 1st, 2022. I don't think these forms can be backdated. See, it says it right on the form. >> Well, technically that may be true, but I've been filling out these forms for years. What's the big deal? It's not

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like I'm hiding anything. And so what? I filled it out a little late this year. Trust me, it'll never happen again. Right, Janice. >> Kristen, is there any way we can pretend this has been here all along? No one will be the wiser.

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Okay. So, in that video, um, somebody wants to see a reporter wants to see the statements of financial interests. um those are need to be produced on demand, you know, pretty much within a

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business day or two or three. They should um be kept and produce on demand. You do not need a right to know. Um we get calls about that all the time. So, um, anyway, in the video, uh,

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Janice, the council person, has not submitted it, and the secretary calls her and she brings it back and it's dated, um, as if she had submitted it on time. And the end of the video says, "Nobody will be the the wiser." And and

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the answer is yes, we will because every year when we put out these forms, they have a revision date in the corner. So, if somebody signs it before the form came out, right? Yes. We're going to know that it

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was backdated. Um, our commission takes backdating very seriously. It's basically lying, which um, you know, is problem for a public official. So, the next few slides are the forms itself because I know this is something

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that touches everybody. I believe that um the last few years it's approximately 160,000 people file these forms. Anybody here file them electronically? Good. Good. Because we're going to be

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moving to that. um not not like you have to, but we're going to be strongly recommending it because so the way to get in trouble with these forms is either to not file or to file a deficient form. Filing online prevents

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you from filing a deficient form in a lot of ways. So, I have the form on here and I wanted to point out a couple of things. First of all, our contact information. We are staffed every workday from 8 am

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to 5:00 pm. A live person answers the phone. I don't know if anybody else gets really annoyed when they call and they're like, "Press number one. Press number two." And you're like, "Five people work there. How can how can nobody answer the

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phone?" So, we um we do and our administrative division deals with these forms all the time. They will walk you through. They have heard every question that you're going to present and they will literally sit with you and walk you through. So I like that everybody has

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our contact information, the instructions. So we have tried our best to make those instructions not look like the holy mess like they look like up there. But that's about the best we can do. So call us. We

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are happy to walk through these forms. Some of the questions are a little confusing. Um, we get a lot of questions about income, you know, retirement income or um, basically if you get like

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something for your taxes, like a form, then for your taxes and it's over 1300 that you made that year, you should list it on your form. Where a lot of people mess up is a lot of these things don't apply to a lot of

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people. For example, the real estate one is if you engaged in real estate with the Commonwealth. If you sold a piece of property to the Commonwealth or bought property from the Commonwealth. Most people that is going to be none.

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Didn't do it. But you have to check the none box. And that's where filing online won't let you mess that up. Um, and then finally, where to file. If you file online, make sure you have one

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also on file with your local entity because they have to have it available for the public. Um, and it'll say, these all say, and if you don't know, call us and we'll get your position or your employment and tell you where you have

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to file. Um, now what happens when you don't file? We have a whole procedure and we like to use it use this again real case as an example. So this is a real form that we received.

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Um, and here's what happened. So this person was told after she left her public employment that she had to file. We send a warning letter that says, "Look, you haven't filed. Please do so

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in 20 days. No harm, no foul, no penalty. She didn't respond. We send a second warning letter. Look, you really have to file. You have 20 days or we're going to, you know, file a notice for civil penalties.

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This person did nothing. When we send that second one, it's sent certified and we get that little green card back with the signature. If they uh don't file, we file a civil penalty and that's just a long legal

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petition that some pe that people get also sent certified. This person got it and did nothing. And we went to the commission and we show them all of this and they imposed a $250 penalty.

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Now, right now, we have no enforcement abilities as a state agency. So right now if that were to happen we'd give that to uh the office of attorney general. They have a financial enforcement section and people would get

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a letter do get letters from the office of the attorney general. Please you have to pay this penalty. Back then we went to commonwealth court and commonwealth court we say look this is a commission order. We know they got the order because we have proof of

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service and they didn't comply. Commonwealth court said, "Okay, they have to pay the civil penalty and they have to pay court costs." Now, by the way, court costs routinely were more than the civil

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penalties were. This person did nothing. Now, if you if you violate an order from the state ethics commission, that's one thing. Like, our feelings are hurt, right? But if you violate a Commonwealth Court judge's order, they get a little

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annoyed and they find you in contempt. And in this case, that's what they did. And they issued a warrant for this person's arrest. Finally, she decided to file. She wrote all kinds of colorful language on the

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form. If you look closely, it's actually not sufficient. She didn't date it. She left a couple things blank. But I think back then they were a little sick of dealing with her and they just said, "All right." Um, so we use it as a teaching tool and we think that's priceless.

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So if you have any questions, I know I kind of breezed through a little quickly at the end. I tried to hit what is most pertinent. Um, and if anybody has online any questions they want to send in, please let me know. >> Thank you so much. Um, I will now recognize members of council for

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comments or questions. No questions or comments from us. Thank you for providing your contact information. I know I for one will be using it. Um I will now recognize the mayor, the administration, or any other elected official in the room for any comment or question. Okay. I will now accept public comment

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with a fivem minute time limit. Is there anyone from the public who would like to make comment? Okay. Um, so once again, I want to thank you, uh, Attorney Layman for being here. I want to thank all of the members of the administration who were able to attend whether in person or online. It is not mandatory. And I very much

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appreciate the time that you take to come down here and hang out with us for this. Um, I'd also think like to thank council vice president Leard for acting as audiovisisual today. Very much appreciate your help. All right, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. >> Thank you.

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Sure.