ADVISORY OPINION 1070

Citizen Advisory Committee/Conflict of Interest

ISSUE: WHETHER A MEMBER OF THE COUGAR MOUNTAIN REGIONAL WILDLIFE PARK CITIZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEE MAY INCUR A CONFLICT OF INTEREST UNDER THE CODE OF ETHICS IF THAT MEMBER HAS A BENEFICIAL INTEREST IN PROMOTING ONE USE OF PUBLIC RECREATIONAL LANDS OVER ANOTHER.

OPINION: Based on the Board's understanding of the history of policies surrounding the establishment and use of Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlife Park and the attenuated relationship between authoring trail guides and serving as a member of a Citizen Advisory Committee, the Board can find no basis for a conflict of interest. In addition hiking interests are balanced on the committee by the representation of other recreational interests, while mountain bicycling itself is precluded on the basis of pre-existing policy.

STATEMENT OF CIRCUMSTANCES: A member of the Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club has requested that the Board of Ethics determine whether a potential conflict of interest exists for a member of the Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlife Park Citizen Advisory Committee if that member promotes hiking interests over mountain bicycling in an area set aside as public recreational land. The basis for this request is that the Citizen Advisory Committee member authors hiking trail guides and receives royalties therefrom.

ANALYSIS: In deliberating on this request, the Board of Ethics considered the history behind the establishment of Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlife Park. K.C.C. 7.12.030 allows the Manager of the Natural Resources and Parks Division to promulgate rules regarding the conditions upon which county parks and recreational facilities are to be used by the public. In September 1990 a division policy prohibited the use of off-road vehicles and bicycles at this particular park except on access roads and in parking areas open to public vehicular traffic. This is the only County park from which mountain bicycles are banned.

In September 1992 the King County Council appropriated funds to the Parks Division to initiate a master plan for Cougar Park and appointed a Citizen Advisory Committee to assist in developing this plan. The committee consisted of fourteen members who would represent a variety of interests, including outdoor recreational activities, and historical, environmental and forestry concerns. The absence of representation for mountain bicyclists was consistent with the continuing policy of the Parks Division which prohibits off-road vehicles and bicycles from park trails. However, the Board understands that members of the mountain bicycling community were allowed to represent their views at a Cougar Park Citizen Advisory Committee meeting.

When considering whether a member of the Citizen Advisory Committee has a potential conflict of interest stemming from his receipt of royalties from the sale of hiking trail guides, the Board found no grounds for conflict for two reasons. First, the member was appointed in 1992, after the Parks Division had already issued a policy which prohibited mountain bicycles within the Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlife Park. Second, the Board discerns only an attenuated relationship between the publication of general trail guides for hikers and the use of trails in one County park.

References: King County Code of Ethics, section 3.04.030.

ISSUED THIS ___________ DAY OF _____________, 1999.

Signed for the Board: _____________________________