Advisory Opinion 96-03-1144
Adult Detention/Acceptance of Travel Expenses

ISSUE: WHETHER A DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR MAY ACCEPT PAID TRAVEL FROM A PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF GIVING A KEYNOTE SPEECH?

Statement of Circumstances:

The Director of the Department of Adult Detention has been invited to be the keynote speaker at an annual meeting of the American Correctional Food Service Association. He will not receive payment for his speech, but the association offered to pay for his airfare. The Director is concerned that there might be a perception of a conflict of interest because although this is a professional organization, its membership includes private vendors in the correctional food service industry.

Analysis:

The Board of Ethics has issued two previous advisory opinions on the subject of acceptance of travel expenses by county employees. In Advisory Opinion 1131, the Board held that a Finance Division employee could not accept travel, lodging, and meal expenses because King County does business with the investment securities dealer who extended the offer, and acceptance would not only conflict with the performance of official duties, but could result in the perception that the dealer might receive special consideration from the investment officer. Advisory Opinion 1117 addressed an analogous issue, and the Board also denied payment of travel expenses for county employees for the purposes of conducting an on-site inspection of a manufacturing company in the Midwest. Again, the Board determined that acceptance would violate the Code of Ethics. In both opinions, the offer of travel and related expenses came from persons who do business with the employee's agency.

Subsection 3.04.030(C) of the Code of Ethics provides in relevant part that a county employee shall be deemed to have a conflict of interest if the employee directly or indirectly:

Accepts or seeks for others, directly or indirectly, any employment, travel expense, service, information, compensation, gift or thing of value on more favorable terms that those granted to other county employees or the public generally, from any person, doing business, or seeking to do business with the county for which the responsibility or with regard to which he or she may participate, …

while subsection 3.04.030(D) provides that a conflict would exist if an a county employee:

Accepts, directly or indirectly, any gift, favor, loan, retainer, entertainment, travel expense, compensation or other thing of value from any person doing business or seeking to do business with the county when such acceptance may conflict with the performance of the employee's official duties. A conflict shall be deemed to exist where a reasonable and prudent person would believe that the gift, compensation, thing of value, or more favorable terms, was given for the purpose of obtaining special consideration or to influence county action. (subsection D)

In this case, the offer of paid travel expenses comes from a national association which does not do business with the director's agency. Therefore, acceptance would not conflict with the performance of the director's official duties on behalf of King County, and would not lead to an expectation of either special consideration or the ability to influence the county action. However, the Board cautions that offers of paid travel from professional associations should be extended on the association's official letterhead and should carry the signature of an association officer or other designated official.

Opinion:

Acceptance of paid travel from a professional association does not violate the Code of Ethics when the association does not do, or seek to do, business with the county agency, and when receipt does not conflict with the performance of official duties. However, such invitations should be extended on the letterhead of the professional association and signed by an appropriate association officer or designated conference program manager.

References: King County Code of Ethics, section 3.04.020, subsections A and B.

ISSUED THIS ___________ DAY OF ___________________, 199__.

Signed for the Board: Timothy G. Edwards, Chair

Members:

Timothy G. Edwards, Chair
Rev. Paul Pruitt
Ron Carlson
Dr. Lois Price Spratlen

cc:

Gary Locke, King County Executive
King County Councilmembers
Paul Tanaka, Deputy King County Executive
Art Wallenstein, Director, Department of Adult Detention
David Krull, Director-Ombudsman, Office of Citizen Complaints
Robert I. Stier, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney and Counsel to the Board of Ethics