Loading...
Agenda 01/12/2010 Item #16K 2 Agenda Item No. 161<2 January 12, 2010 Page 1 of 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY -, Report with alternative recommendations to the Board of Connty Commissioners with respect to Section 8 of the Collier County Ethics Ordinance, with a recommendation that given the current unprecedented economic downtnrn, that the Board suspend this portion of the Ordinance for two years. OBJECTIVE: Provide alternative recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners with respeet to Seetion 8 of the Collier County Ethics Ordinance, with a recommendation for a two year suspension of Section 8, CONSIDERATIONS: During the Board's December 15, 2009 regular meeting, Commissioner Henning commenced a discussion under Item 9C with respect to whether Section 8 of the Collier County Ethics Ordinance should be suspended or modified in light of current economic conditions, The Board directed the County Attorney to work with the County Manager to develop alternatives to the Ordinance's post-employment restrictions so as to provide better employment opportunities for former County employees. We have elected to provide the Board with a recommendation and plaee this matter on the consent agenda, but welcome the opportunity for diseussion should the Board be so inclined, Section 8 ofthe Collier County Ethics Ordinance. Section 8 of the Collier County Ethics Ordinance presently provides as follows: ~ Post-employment restrictions. (a) No county managerial employee shall personally represent another person or entity for compensation before the Board of County Commissioners or any of its divisions, departments, agencies, or boards for a period of two years following vacation of office, resignation of employment, or termination of employment, as applicable, except for the purposes of eollective bargaining, (b) For a period of two years following vacation of office, resignation of employment, or termination of employment, as applicable, except for the purposes of collective bargaining, no county employee shall personally represent another person or entity for compensation before the Board of County Commissioners or any of its divisions, departments, agencies, or boards on a matter in which he or she had material personal involvement during his or her period of county employment. This provision has its genesis in Ordinance No. 99-22, which provided as follows: SECTION SIX EMPLOYMENT RESTRICTIONS 1. No County Managerial Employee shall personally represent another person or entity for compensation before the government body or agency of which the individual was an officer or --- employee for a period of two years following vacation of office, resignation of employment, or termination of employment as applicable except for the purposes of collective bargaining, ~- '-'--"--. , '-'- -- - ._-, ._,,~.,. ."~",. -,n--.C', "",., .',.-. ,',-- , ,.",......",--,,~,'~._,-,....,.,,-- Agenda Item No. 16K2 January 12, 2010 Page 2 of 6 2. These employment restrictions shall apply only to those County Managerial Employees who began employment with Collier County Government on or after March 9, 1999. 2003 Board Direction This provision was discussed by the Board on April 22, 2003, along with other portions of the Collier County Ethics Ordinance. The relevant discussion was as follows: MR MUDD: .., But the last -- the last piece goes to ordinance 99-22, and it's -- and it goes to section six, post-employment restrictions, And I am not going to be popular with this recommendation, but I think it needs to be made, There's a section one, it says, no county managerial employee shall personally represent another person or entity for compensation before the government body or agency of which the individual was an officer or employee for a period of two years following vacation of office, resignation of employment, or termination of employment as applicable except for the purposes of collective bargaining. ,...... And then it has a paragraph two, it says, these post-employment restrictions shall apply only to those county managerial employees who began employment with Collier County on or after March 9th, 1999, That's garbage. Get rid of that paragraph two. There isn't an exception here. And I would also add a paragraph that says, in any case the employee cannot lobby this board on any project they worked on as an employee of the county government forever. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Exactly, MR MUDD: Okay? And I think if you do that, I think you'll solve a lot of problems that we've got right now as far as perception is concerned and reality, for that matter, in our every day activities in front of this board the second and the fourth Tuesday of every month. I think - COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'll go along with that. MR MUDD: -- we need to add those and those need to be explicit in detail. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I like that. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Would that be retroactive? .._,", MR MUDD: Commissioner, I think it's going to be very difficult to make that retroactive, okay, as far as legally binding, but I think that the clause that says, in any case it cannot lobby on a project that they worked on as an employee forever, "._"",,"'_n__ '_"'.~..'_,,_, ' ,.~. "'""F_ "."......,'~_.,......> ""-'~" .~.,.,., -- "-".", -', -......" ."" .....~ -', Agenda Item No. 16K2 January 12, 2010 Page 3 of 6 I think that gets at that forever issue or that retroactive piece that you want to get at, Commissioner. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Thank you. Any other direction that we want to give our staff? Commissioner Coyle? COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah. That was exactly the issue I wanted -- wanted to address. I put that in the City of Naples ethics ordinance five years ago, and it has worked fairly well, the revolving door clause. The applicability or the effective date can be the effective date whenever this thing is approved, so there's not a question of retroactive. I think your concerned about retroactivity was whether or not you can make it effective to all county employees whereas right now it's not effective -- not applicable to all the county employees. It can be made applicable to all county employees by merely saying the effective date of this application's going to be as of the date we approve it. Now, that, by the way, I will tell you at the risk of offending a lot of employees, is the biggest loophole in the entire ethics ordinance, because giving -- giving somebody $50 or $ 100 or a trip to the racetrack is peanuts compared to giving them a $150,000 job to come to work for them after they have served in county govemment and made some decisions that are favorable. I'm not saying that's happened. I'm merely saying that that is a way of influencing people. .'.." COMMISSIONER HALAS: Possibly. COMMISSIONER COYLE: -- and it's probably the biggest loophole in the entire ethics ordinance. So I strongly support the revolving door provision. The provision we had in the city of ordinance -- the City of Naples ordinance said that for three years you could not represent anyone before the county commission for whom you had made any decisions in govemment. But nevertheless, I think it's a good idea, and I commend the county -- county manager for proceeding with this. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Great. So I think we have enough direction from the dais. Is there any clarification that our staff needs? (No response.) This provision was then modified to read as it presently stands by Ordinance 2003-53. Public Policy Considerations. As discussed by the Board, Section 8 of the Collier County Ethics Ordinance was '-" intended to address the following two public policy considerations: -,..~~- .". , """" . Agenda Item No. 16K2 January 12, 2010 Page 4 of 6 I. To reduce the incentive for managerial level employees to inappropriately aid private sector employers in exchange for possible future employment; and 2. To eliminate the possibility of any County employee representing a private sector employer on any matter which that person worked on while being employed by the County. The primary question for the Board is whether current economic conditions require either a suspension of or revision to either of these provisions. Although Board discussion seemed to focus on subsection (a) of Section 8 of the Ordinance, we are for purposes of this Executive Summary including both sections, as we do not wish to unintentionally limit Board discussion on this matter, and as section (a) applies to only a handful of employees. Alternative Recommendations We propose the following alternatives with respect to subsection (a) of Section 8 of the Collier County Ethics Ordinance, which provides that "No county managerial employee shall personally represent another person or entity for compensation before the Board of County Commissioners or any of its divisions, departments, agencies, or boards for a period of two years following vacation of office, resignation of employment, or termination of employment, as applicable, except for the purposes of collective bargaining." .. I. No change. Although employment opportunities in Collier County have significantly diminished, the County continues to wish to reduce the possibility of managerial employees recommending action to the Board based on hopes of future employment by private sector employers, as well as maintain the public's faith in this issue. 2. Suspend for two years (or any other time frame deemed appropriate by the Board) for all managerial employees who have left the employ of the County. Although the County remains concerned about the possibility of managerial employees recommending action to the Board based on hopes of future employment by private sector employers, this concern is outweighed by the economic hardship that would be incurred by these employees in this current market. 3. Eliminate the provision entirely. The County no longer wishes to regulate this area. We propose the following alternatives with respect to subsection (b) of Section 8 of the Collier County Ethics Ordinance, which provides that: "For a period of two years following vacation of office, resignation of employment, or termination of employment, as applicable, except for the purposes of collective bargaining, no county employee shall personally represent another person or entity for compensation before the Board of County Commissioners or any of its divisions, departments, agencies, or boards on a matter in which he or she had material personal involvement during his or her period of county employment." I. No change. It is always inappropriate for any former County employee to work on a project they were involved with while in the employ of Collier County. .."."" ,..,...... _ ,H",,""_'_" ,u ,"'-"',0"'" Agenda Item No. 16K2 January 12. 2010 Page 5 of 6 2. Suspend for two years (or any other time frame deemed appropriate by the Board) for all employees who have left the employ of the County. Although the County remains concerned about the possibility of former employees representing a private sector employer on a matter which that person worked on while being employed by the County, this concern is outweighed by the economic hardship that would be incurred by these employees in this current market. 3. Eliminate the provision entirely. The County no longer wishes to regulate this area. The County Attorney and Staff also discussed at length the possibility of limiting the suspension to managers or employees whose departure from County service was involuntary, however, this concept was ultimately rejected as creating far too many legal and practical difficulties. FISCAL IMPACT: None. GROWTH MANAGEMENT IMPACT: None. LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS: No legal issues are raised at this time. This is a local regulation, which imposes obligations in excess of State ethics law. <"'" RECOMMENDATION: The concern underlying Section 8 of the Ethics Ordinance was to disincentivize County managers and employees from currying favor with private developers in the hope of being rewarded with a high paying job. This is quite simply not an issue in today's Collier County, as the unprecedented falloff in real estate and land development is causing both the County and the private sector to significantly downsize. As a matter of fairness, it is recommended that the Board suspend Section 8 for two years and allow all those who have recently left the County, and others who may later suffer the same fate, an opportunity to find employment without being unduly hindered by this provision. We will come back to the Board should economic conditions improve, but in no event in less than two years, to ascertain whether the Board wishes to continue this suspension. Prepared by: Leo Ochs, County Manager, and Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney .".~.. - ....,.-,..",...'...,..,_._-, ,-"""","', Agenda Item No. 16K2 January 12, 2010 Page 6 of 6 --- COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Item Number: Item Summary: 16K2 Report with alternative recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners with respect to Section 8 of the Collier County Ethics Ordinance. 1/12/2010 9:00:00 AM Meeting Date: Prepared By Jeff Klatzkow County Attorney Date 12/28/20093:43:00 PM Approved By Jeff Klatzkow County Attorney Date 12/28/20094:54 PM Approved By Leo E. Ochs, Jr. County Manager Date County Managers Office County Managers Office 1/3/201010:27 PM - - .-- --,,-_., ~. ,~-..~ " -^--."- -- ..-"-.- .