��ū�컨��

00:03

This section of the Executive Branch Ethics Act restricts employees and immediate family members from having a personal or financial interest in University or state contracts, grants, leases or loans if the employee may withhold or take action official action that would impact the outcome. 

It protects that principle in two ways: a disclosure requirement and a prohibition.

Disclosure requirement:

As ��ū�컨�� employees we have to report in writing to the ethics supervisor a personal or financial interest held by ourselves, or our immediate family members, in any ��ū�컨�� grant,  contract, lease, or loan, that is awarded, executed or administered by the university. 

Prohibition: 

As a ��ū�컨�� employee neither myself, nor any immediate family member, may enter into, or try to enter into, or apply for, or have a personal or financial interest in, any university grant, contract, lease or loan if I may take or withhold official action that affects anything about that grant, contract, lease or loan.

01:18

Examples of issues that need to be disclosed:

The most common is if two immediate family members are each employed by the University, at least one of them has to disclose that in writing to the ethics supervisor. And this situation is so common that there's a specialized form we use for disclosure of employment of an immediate family member. Immediate family member(s) not employed by ��ū�컨�� submitting a bid to become a private contractor would still be a personal or financial interest and need to be disclosed.

01:50

Can my immediate family member be an employee or a private contractor?

The disclosure requirement covers a broader array of contracts, grants, leases, or loans, than the prohibition does -- most of the disclosures made by employees are situations that are not prohibited. If the employee has any influence, even in an advisory role, over the grant, or contract, or lease, or loan, it triggers a prohibition. An advisory role is still official action.

02:29

If I don't have any influence at all, such as a decision made by a separate component of ��ū�컨��, is it prohibited?

Then although this still has to be disclosed, your immediate family member is not prohibited from applying for that, as long as neither immediate family member has any kind of supervisory role with respect to the other. In other words, is not in a position from which they can participate in any employment, or grievance, or compensation, retention, promotion, leave, or other personnel decisions concerning the other family member, then that's permissible.  The disclosure still has to be made, but no remedial action will be necessary beyond that. 

Possible scenarios:

• If the immediate family member is trying to contract with the university on a matter that's completely unrelated to the employee’s position or authority the disclosure still has to be made, but they are not prohibited from applying. 
• If the immediate family member would be prohibited from applying because the university-employed family member has a supervisory role, the ethics supervisor can make an assessment in that situation to explore if it's feasible to reassign duties away from the family member to someone else. If that is found to be feasible, that's the preferred solution to address a potential conflict.
• If your immediate family member wants to apply for a position that you would normally supervise, then the ethics supervisor can work with your work supervisor to see if it is practical to take those particular supervisory duties away from your position, and assign them to another position. If it's practicable to do that, then the ethics supervisor writes up a formal memo to accomplish that, and once your work supervisor approves that reassignment memo, then you don't have that supervisory authority anymore. It's not always feasible to make that reassignment, but where it is, and where that's properly documented, that fixes the problem.