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Board of Ethics
TOWN OF VICTOR BOARD OF ETHICS PROCESS
The Board of Ethics is an independent body established to allow a Town Employee, Board Member or Committee Member ("Representative") to request an opinion on a matter(s) of interest to him/her. The Board of Ethics is independent and does not take direction from, nor report to, the Town Board or any other governing body.
For a Representative to engage the Board of Ethics, a request for a hearing before the Board is submitted in writing to the Town Clerk. The request may be confidential in nature, so the details of the request are not required to be submitted to the Clerk. When the request is received by the Clerk, the Board of Ethics members are notified, and the Chair of the Board of Ethics establishes the date and time for meeting of the Board. The purpose of the meeting is to hear the Representative's request of the Board.
While the Board of Ethics Meetings are subject to Public Notice and are open to the Public, any referrals to the Board that involve matters deemed by the Board to be confidential in nature will be heard by the Board in Executive Session.
The Board of Ethics does not apply to Town employees. Any employee issues are handled directly by the Human Resources department. Board of Ethics opinions can be sought on decisions made by other boards, and the actions of elected/appointed officials.
During the Executive Session portion of the meeting, the Board of Ethics will hear the details of the matter the Representative is seeking an opinion on. The Board of Ethics may deem it appropriate to hear from other individuals to garner information that would aid in the formulation of the opinion. Hearing input from others is at the discretion of the Board of Ethics. In as much as the Board my want to hear from others, the Board may need to convene an additional meeting(s) to ensure that the Board is able to collect/hear any information the Board deems necessary to formulate an opinion.
After hearing the matter and completing its due diligence, the Board of Ethics has many options at its disposal. Some of the options available include:
a) Offer a confidential opinion to the Representative;
b) Decline to offer an opinion to the Representative if the Board of Ethics feels that the request is not within the intended purpose of the Board;
c) Refer directly, or recommend that the Representative refer the matter to another Ethics Board (County, Professional, etc.)
The list above is not intended to be all-inclusive.
If the Board does decide to offer an opinion, the Board of Ethics will provide its confidential opinion to the Representative that requested it. The Representative may choose to the keep the opinion confidential or may choose to divulge it as he/she sees fit.
To preserve the integrity of the Board of Ethics, Members of the Board of Ethics are discouraged from independently seeking out information related to a pending matter. In addition, Board members do not engage in discussions/deliberations outside of formal Board Meetings.