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00:09

If an employee is about to retire or leave the university to take another job, does that mean that their Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act obligations are complete at that point?

For the most part, yes. Bear in mind if you're going to work for another employer, that employer may have their own ethical obligations and in particular if you go to work for the State of Alaska you'll be bound by the same Executive Branch Ethics Act that governs us as ��ū�컨�� employees.  But, for the most part, once we leave employment with the university we don't have to follow the EBEA anymore but with two exceptions.  This includes (1) the information that we glean from our ��ū�컨�� official duties and (2) the other has to do with advice, assistance, and representation.

1. Current and former employees have an obligation to continue keeping confidential that information that is confidential by law and also to refrain from using or disclosing any information that might have any benefit for myself or for an immediate family member. And those obligations still apply even after the employee leaves university employment. The obligation to keep confidential that information that is confidential by law is indefinite and permanent.
2. For two years after leaving ��ū�컨�� employment employees cannot advise, assist, or represent someone on a matter that was under consideration by the administrative unit for which they worked, and in which they personally and substantially participated. This exception is temporary and it's also waivable and it doesn't really come up very often.

02:29

Examples of prohibited post-employment activity for a period of two years after you leave employment include:

• Employee is on a hiring committee; a dissatisfied job applicant is thinking about suing the university and wants to hire this employee to be a consultant.

• Employee was on the selection committee for a contract award or otherwise participated personally substantially in it; one of the people or businesses who put in a proposal that was not selected wants to pay the employee to be an expert witness.  
• Employee was on a grade review committee;  and the student wants to appeal that determination to Superior Court and wants to pay the employee to help write that appeal.
• Employee helped write a university regulation or a Regent's policy;  outside employer wants to pay for employee’s help in lobbying the Board of Regents to change it. 

03:37

This rule applies only if it is for compensation. Compensation is defined pretty broadly so it also includes travel reimbursement.  But if it is something you are doing with no compensation at all then it is not a violation of the statute.  But, with or without compensation, you still have the duty to respect the information limitations.  So even if there's no compensation, you cannot disclose information that's confidential by law, or disclose or use information that could be of any benefit at all, whether financial or not, to yourself or a member of your immediate family.

04:15

The bar on assistance, advice, or representation only lasts for two years.  As we discussed earlier, if you are, in the course of providing this advice or assistance, drawing on information that's confidential or that could benefit you or a family member and has not been publicly disseminated yet, that information protection obligation remains in place. The restriction that is specific to advice, assistance or representation for compensation is two years. 

04:45 

There's a specific provision in the statute that says that if it is the University that wants you to come back to work for them as a contractor, or maybe as an employee, then this prohibition doesn't apply. There are some wage and hour rules and retirement rules that might have limitations on how quickly you can do that but the ethical obligation doesn't apply if it's the same agency like the university that wants you to work on that issue. 

If it would be to work for someone else under this provision rather than the university, the former employee can apply to the university president to waive the bar of that statute if the university president is convinced that it's not adverse to the public interest. That waiver has to be submitted to the Attorney General's office for approval.

For more information, contact the General Counsel’s office (907-450-8080) or the Attorney General's office (907-269-5100).