QUESTION
What actions does the Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) take when an elected official misrepresents the guidance COIB provided?
0:58:02
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171 sec
The Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) is prohibited by law from disclosing whether someone sought advice from them or what specific advice was given.
- COIB cannot confirm or deny if an elected official accurately described the guidance received
- There are limitations on COIB's ability to address misrepresentations of their guidance publicly
- The discussion highlights challenges COIB faces in monitoring and enforcing conflict of interest rules
- Changes are proposed to improve processes around the substantial discretion policymaker list
- This includes more frequent updates and requiring additional information from agencies
Lincoln Restler
0:58:02
But oftentimes, we'll hear elected officials, public officials say, I consulted with the Netflix of interest board.
0:58:08
They told me this was fine.
0:58:11
And we have no insight whether You did tell them it was fine or whether the they're accurately describing the guidance that they received.
0:58:21
When an elected official misrepresents the guidance they've received publicly misrepresented the guidance they've received from the confluence of interest board.
0:58:29
What will you do then?
Carolyn Miller
0:58:30
The law prohibits the board.
0:58:33
From disclosing whether someone sought advice or what advice they received.
Lincoln Restler
0:58:37
I just I have to say when we're identifying three cases out of 20,000 people leaving city service for violating post employment restrictions, and we're unable to really drill down that somebody in the most senior role in city government is creating a lobbying practice while working at city hall that there's potentially legality happening, I find myself quite frustrated.
0:59:02
So I just wanna move on to the substantial discretion policymaker list.
0:59:07
Could you describe the proposed changes to the substantial discretion policymaker list that you're pursuing in recent updates to the rules, the capital rules?
Ethan Carrier
0:59:18
Yeah.
0:59:18
The the the the board is in the in the process of considering some proposed changes to the policy maker rules that are just about the process of doing that work.
0:59:30
That is trying some some efforts to the current law has agencies designating policymakers once a year.
0:59:40
The concluded.
0:59:41
That wasn't frequent enough because, you know, turnover, you wanna sort of have more accurate risk list, so that's being updated to be twice a year now.
0:59:48
And is requiring that agencies provide some additional information, including some organizational charts so that the board and the board staff can do a better job of evaluating whether or not the people that agencies are designating are in act.
1:00:06
The people who have the authority and responsibilities that should be designated as policy makers.
1:00:11
They're not leaving people out or adding people on there who shouldn't be there.
1:00:17
In addition to that, the board is codifying a practice of the board began several years ago where the board taken over the responsibility of notifying policymakers of their additional legal obligations directly rather than relying on agencies to do that just to ensure that it's happening and that the communications about those are are uniform.
1:00:41
So those procedural things, there was a public hearing for that yesterday and the the board at a open meeting sometime in the near future, we'll evaluate those procedural changes.