The Ohio Ethics Law and Public Schools Recorded Webinar Transcript

[00:05] Hello. I'm Susan Willeke with the Ohio Ethics Commission and it's my pleasure to welcome you to this webinar created specifically about the Ohio Ethics Law as it pertains to Ohio's school districts. Before we jump into the actual information about what's actually in the statute, I thought you might just want to know a little bit about why this law is so important, certainly both to you as someone who serves in the public school system, but also you as a fellow citizen and fellow taxpayer. You know, the Ohio Ethics Law has been around for almost 50 years, and the intent of it is always to protect the public, to ensure that all governments in all its formats in Ohio, whether at the state level, local governments such as cities, townships, counties, villages, police departments, fire departments, universities or public school districts to ensure that all of us in the in the state of Ohio, no matter where you live, that you have confidence that governmental actions and decisions are made with your best interest in mind.

[01:05] The idea of this law is to ensure that every time government acts, it is in fact with the public’s best interest at heart. That nobody is ever using or abusing public positions to benefit themselves, their families, or people they may have in their private business lives. Now, certainly as we go through the parts of the Ethics Law today, I am going to talk about the things that can and should not happen in public school districts in all of our years of public service. But as we go through this statute, please keep in mind that that “why” protects you broader than just that. Of course, I want you to be in compliance with the Ethics Law so that nobody ever gets in trouble under the statute. But on a broader scale, I really want you to be aware of the way this law protects you in all of your communities, in your township, in your village, in your county, and at your state government level as well. If you want, more information about the Ethics Law than what we'll provide in this webinar I am going to give you our website at the end of this session so that you can learn more. But of course, today in this session, I'm going to specifically focus on how the Ethics Law itself impacts people who work in school districts all over the state of Ohio. So with that, let me give you just a little bit of information about the Ethics Commission itself.

[02:18] As I mentioned, the Commission has been around for approaching 50 years. We have a number of statutory responsibilities, which you see, of course, on this screen right here. I will say I recognize that the investigative part of the Ohio Ethics Commission is probably the part where people get their most interest, where they want kind of the dirt, if you will. And I understand and respect that. Certainly I have interest in knowing who kind of makes the really egregious decisions and really betrays the public's trust. And in fairness, I am glad that we do have the accountability of the Ethics Law and our wonderful investigative staff to pursue justice when it's required and warranted. However, I do also want to point out that it would be our goal, that people in public schools, that they never have to interact with our investigators. As wonderful as our investigators are, my guess is you would much prefer to spend some more time in the proactive world of the Ohio Ethics Commission. That's what you see on this screen, these two bullet points. That's those areas of our office that can provide information, can provide guidance and counsel to help people make sure they do stay on the right path, that they're not out of compliance with the statute and never have to meet up with our investigators.

[03:29] I manage and oversee the education, training, communication parts of the Ohio Ethics Commission's efforts. We do everything in my section from in-person speeches, maybe I've seen some of you before at different, oh, at different conferences, whether it's, you know, the school superintendents conference or maybe middle schools or secondary schools or perhaps you participated with me in live webinars in the past, maybe you've taken our e-course, maybe you're subscribing to our newsletter, you’ve checked out our fact sheets on our website. Our goal is to be able to take information about the Ethics Law and turn it into language that's understandable, that's friendly and applicable, that people have the toolkit that they need right at their disposal to make sure they, when that moment happens of, “I want to do the right thing, I'm just not sure what the right thing is to do” that they can get that information either from one of us directly or through our website.

[04:22] I would also point out, this first bullet point here on the screen, to point out that we do have advisory attorneys at the ready to give free legal advice about the Ethics Law. That when that moment in someone's life occurs, that they think “I’m honestly not sure how to proceed, but yet I don't want to get into trouble. I don't want to betray the public’s trust in what our school district is doing,” reach out to those advisory attorneys. They are there to help you do the right thing. They will take your specific situation, your circumstance, and translate it into a way that says, “Here’s what our precedent says, here's how we interpret the law,” and they can give you advice that's legally binding. That does protect you from potential prosecution, etc.. So keep in mind the “why,” why this law exists why it's so important to you, and keep in mind that the Ethics Commission is to help make sure you can do the right thing when you do encounter these specific parts of the Ohio Ethics Law.

[05:16] Now, just as a reminder, the information that we're going to talk about on the screen today, even this is not the totality of the Ohio Ethics Law. You probably understand that I could teach a whole semester of law school just about the Ethics Law but we just kind of want to give you the highlights. I know these are dirty phrases to say in school districts, but I'm going to give you the CliffsNotes or the SparkNotes of the Ethics Law. Don't tell the students we’re allowed to use those. Right. This really is a summation of a much broader, much more nuanced law. But what I’m gonna try and do is cover in these, sort of the primary areas of the ethics law, I'm going to try to apply those in ways that school districts encounter, questions we’ve received, or perhaps just theoretically you could sort of notice along your way in your years of public service. Whether you're an administrator, whether you're in the guidance office or the front office, whether you're a teacher, a coach, we want to be able to make this law palatable and applicable to what you do every day in your years of public service. So let's kind of hit these one at a time, and I will start with that first one, Conflicts of Interest.

[06:22] I sort of like this visual. You've probably already picked up on the fact that I'm a visual learner, right? I like this visual, that moment in an innocent person's life, right? I like that this one has a kid because I don't want people to think that the only folks that ever encounter conflicts of interest in their years of public service are people who are sort of like, you know, sort of have nefarious motives, are kind of villians, “Muah ah ah! How can I abuse public opposition for personal gain today?” It doesn't always play out that way. There are times when perfectly good people in public service come at this impasse, this crossroads. Like, “What should I do? Which way should I go?” Again I'm going to shout out for the Education and Advisory sections at the Ethics Commission to get some advice. But in a nutshell, let me give you some information on what the conflict of interest statute is really all about.

[07:15] First, I will say this, though, please keep in mind that having a conflict of interest in public service is not illegal. The truth is having a conflict of interest is somewhat common in public service. Let me take it out of the school district arena just for one minute. Just so we're thinking, like, taxpayers and citizens. Let's pretend that I work for the county health department in the county that you call home. And a normal part of my job with the health department is that I inspect restaurants, let's say, for that county health department. And now let's say that I have a sister who owns a restaurant in that county. Is that a conflict for me? Sure. But is it any reason for me to panic? No. As long as I'm not the one acting on that conflict of interest.

[08:07] As long as I'm the one saying, hey, somebody else has to act on this or recommend or review or inspect or make recommendations. If I I'm staying completely out of it it's okay that I have a conflict. Where it becomes not okay (read: Illegal) is when I am acting on my conflict. So in a nutshell, what this part of the statute tells us is that any time something arises in our years of public service where we would have a definite and direct impact either on ourselves, members of our families, or people that we have a business relationship with in our private outside lives, that's the moment when we say, “Hold on here a minute, I need to get more information, I need to get some questions answered. I need to make sure that what I'm about to embark on would be in compliance with the Ohio Ethics Law.

[09:00] That moment, when someone says, ”This issue before the school district, this matter before the superintendent's office, this matter before the principal's office, this doesn't impact everybody in the school district. This is not across the board uniform way that would impact everybody. Somehow, someone in my life, maybe my property values, my child, my, my job, someone in my family, their job, their business, their nonprofit, somebody in, a client that I have in my private business, they are somehow singled out in a special way.” That's the moment that the law would say, “I have to step away. I must recuse myself.” So glance quickly at this slide, we're talking about recusal and what that looks like under the Ethics Law.

[09:45] Let's say, for example, that I am a school board member at your school district, and let's say that something has come up - I've used the example of, let's say, my brother's property value, that this construction project at my school district will have a definite and direct impact on my brother's property value. Note how broad that word recuse or abstain would be interpreted under the Ethics Law. We would not merely say, “Well, I will abstain from the final vote on this construction project because it would impact my brother's property value.” It certainly would include the voting. But as you can see on this list, it's a whole lot more as well. It means I'm not even going to have a hallway conversation. I'm not going to text anybody my point of view. When there is a definite and direct impact on myself, on a member of my family or someone that I have a business relationship with in my private life, I am going to abstain or recuse from every and all aspects of that discussion that deliberating that decision making. So what I've done is I've come up with a few kind of Q&A that has sort of originated through advisory requests, investigations, maybe even questions that I got during speeches I've done across the state of Ohio. Keep in mind, everything we're talking about, I am going to give you access to information at the end of this webinar on how to get even more information and how to get the answers to these questions in writing. But for now, we're going to kind of do a pretty quick overview of some of these issues that have arisen under the law as it pertains to public school districts.

[11:28] So let's look at this first one, pretty straightforward question that we might receive here. So we've got this high school student that's saying, “Hey, there's this district sponsored scholarship and I'm very interested in it, but gee, my mom serves on the school board.” So the question that would come before the Ethics Commission is: Can this high school student even apply for this district sponsored scholarship, knowing that his or her mom serves on the school board? Now, there is no don't worry, don't panic. You're thinking, how do I vote? How do I get credit? This is a recorded webinar, so don't worry, I'm not going to be able to track whether or not you were here or not. I will just give you all the answers and the answer to this one is: Yes, of course that student can apply. The restriction here is not on the student. The restriction in this case is on their parent who's the board member and the board member, Mom, Dad, whatever which would say, “Honey, Mom and Dad love you dearly, but we can't advocate for you. We can't go behind the scenes. We can't call in favors. We have to stay a million miles away from this discussion, deliberating and decision making.” Again, recusal. All the way. When something that happens, happened in our school district that had that definite and direct impact on ourselves, family, outside business associates. Let's move on to our second one here everybody. Okay, how about this one? So we've got this teacher who's wondering, “Am I allowed to tutor?” Right? That's the first question. But here's the more specific one on this screen. “Would I be allowed to advertise my tutoring services to students, to parents? Can I require it as part of the curriculum?” I hope already that you're getting the feeling of: Absolutely not. Now, before anybody panic, this does not automatically prohibit every school teacher in your district from providing tutoring services. That's not what that question read. That actually is allowed. What our precedent has stated is not that a teacher cannot tutor this student in their AP chemistry class. What it's saying is: it cannot be mandatory. It cannot be the only students who gets an A, get an A, is someone that takes my tutoring.

[13:34] It cannot be part of the already regulated curriculum, cannot be already an expectation of that teacher, for example, that, “We expect that as part of this class you're going to do extra tutoring through these hours,” etc.. It cannot be part of school sponsored function. It cannot be advertised to students or to parents. If, unsolicited, a parent or student comes to you? Now we could talk. You cannot advertise it. And finally, it could not be part of that teacher's contracted school day. If it's after hours, that's a different scenario. But it cannot be during your preparation period. It cannot be during the study hall. If you are on that contracted time, you could not provide that. If anybody, again, if you need more information we've got a great, excuse me, a great written opinion on that very issue that we can send out to you. All right, Here's another one, everybody. All right. How about this one? Let's say I'm the school treasurer and let's say in my private life I have an accounting business. Would I be allowed to use my job title? The logo? Some slogan that references: Hey, you already trust me with the school district’s money so you know you can trust me with yours. I hope you're already again saying: “No, not a good idea.” We can not use our public jobs, positions, titles, uniforms, equipment, resources, etc. to somehow get profits or more clients in a private business. We have to keep a wall between those two. How about this one everybody? So on this one we have a school board member, I kind of referenced this one already, that this construction project will impact my property value. Should I abstain? And the answer is a resounding “Yes.” Again, there is no loophole in the Ethics Law that says, “Hey, everybody, I promise I'll behave objectively.” No, the law just says if it would have a direct impact on myself, family, business associates I must recuse from every and all aspect. How about this? Let's say that I am your school librarian. And by the way, because I love books so much, in addition, in addition to serving as your school librarian, I own this bookstore in my private life, and I'm wondering, am I allowed to use some of the same vendors that the school uses?

[15:52] The answer is “Yes.” You can take advantage of all the normal vendors and companies that anybody else in the world can access. The issue here would be that definite and direct impact. You cannot negotiate special discounts from those vendors at your bookstore just because you also interact with them at the school library. You geting the idea here? That we cannot use or abuse our public position for some unfair benefit, advantage, gain, etc. How about this one? Let's say now that I'm a school custodian and there is a construction company, they have some ongoing project with the district, but I noticed on their website a job posting that I might really be interested in it. So could I, let's say, apply for that job? Now I will tell you, I have to confess to you, if we were all together in person, right, if we were all in a big room, here's what I would do. I would say, “How many of you say ‘Yes?’” And I would make you raise your hand. “How many of you say ‘No?’” And I’d make you raise your hand. And then I would annoy all of you by saying that the answer is “Maybe.” Because in fairness, this is not to say that the Ethics Commission is gratuitous or capricious in how they do things. What we're saying is, we would look at the facts and circumstances of that situation individually to give you more sort of, guided insight, advice on that specific situation. So in fairness, let's say that I'm a custodian who has been intimately involved in the construction of this project because it impacts my building, the facility that I oversee. If I've been involved, if I'm a contact, if I'm a conduit of information, if I'm part of those meetings, discussions, then no, I could not be seeking a thing of value, like a new job from the very company that I’m interacting with on behalf of my school district. However, it's entirely possible that my scenario might be different, that I might be able to genuinely, authentically say, “Yes, this construction company has a project with the district, but I have absolutely zero involvement. I haven't had a discussion, I've never had an email. I'm not part of the school discussions. No one has asked me to weigh in in any way, shape or form.”

[17:59] Well, in that situation, that job application might be perfectly acceptable because I have no interaction. The idea of all these questions is not necessarily to give you the answer of every single situation that could arise under the Ethics Law. The idea is to remind you, when these questions arise, come to us, check out our website. We have so much information on our website that will help guide you and your decision making. By all means, if your school district has retained legal counsel, you may always seek information there as well. But in the interim, always keep in mind that we have a lot out there that can already help you. If you can't find what you are looking for on our website, give our main number a call, which I'll give you at the end of this website, end of this webinar, and you could talk to us for more information. I know that's a ton of information to get in a very short amount of time, but hopefully we're just kind of whetting your appetite and greasing the wheel of all the types of information that we can provide to you and questions that we can answer under all these varied areas of the Ohio Ethics Law. But with that, we are going to move on to the next area of the Ethics Law and that is, in fact, the gift part of our statute. Here's one of the very, very common questions I get about this part of the Ethics Law. If I'm doing a speech in some auditorium or some conference somewhere, very common that someone may say to me, “Okay, when it comes to gifts, Susan, what does the Ethics Law say? What's the dollar amount? Just tell me what it is. Is it ten? Is it twenty? Fifty? A hundred? A million? What is it? Just tell us what it is. And I promise you we will, in fact, obey it.” The truth is, the Ohio Ethics Law does not identify a specific dollar amount as a cutoff for gifts. If you don't believe it, you're welcome to look it up. It's Revised Code 102.03(E). You will not find that dollar amount that says “Hey, everybody. As long as this gift is worth less than this amount, you're okay. But if it's over that it's illegal!” We don't actually have that in our statute.

[20:04] What 102.03(E) in a nutshell, essentially is saying is, you and I, as people in public service, we cannot solicit or accept gifts that are substantial and improper. Now, I know at first glance you must be thinking, “Well, thaaat's helpful.” You know, in all fairness, when you break down these two words in easy to understand language, it's not that bad to apply to our lives, to make very germane to our public job. So let's just break these words down, you and I, people in public service, we're not allowed to solicit or accept things of value when those things of value are substantial and improper. I'm going to break these down. I hope you don't mind that I’m actually starting with the second word first, “improper.” All this word means is: who is the source of that thing of value? That gift? That meal? That ticket? That outing? That box of chocolates? That tin of popcorn? That...whatever it is that we're talking about? Is it from an improper source?” You can see on this screen there's only four categories that make someone an improper source in the eyes of the Ohio Ethics Law. And I will admit to you, in the interest of being more concise and succinct, I'm going to take those first two bullet points and I'm going to mush ‘em together into one to read “vendors and wannabe vendors.” Right? These are the companies that are already doing business with your school district. They are selling goods and services to the school district, or they are really trying to. Perhaps this company is submitting bids to your district. Perhaps they are advertising on a regular basis.

[21:59] Maybe they're calling your treasurer or your public purchaser saying, “Can I meet with you to talk about our products and our widgets and our services?” Again, it does not matter whether it's something like legal services, whether it's something very intangible like, oh, I don't know, it's some sort of consulting, or IT, or it's something very palpable. Maybe it's some, maybe it's schoolbooks, maybe it's office supplies like a chair, or maybe it's, you know, um, construction, something along those lines. It doesn't matter the type. If this is a current vendor or a vendor that really would love to and they're trying to do business, your school district, we're going to call them an improper source under the Ohio Ethics Law. I'm not going to worry too much about that third bullet point for all of you. There are public entities, as you are probably well aware of, that do regulate other people. If I work for a public agency where we issue permits, we review applications, we do inspections, we can take away licenses, we can investigate them. There are definitely agencies, things that come to mind, think like the Department of Natural Resources, maybe the Environmental Protection Agency, maybe the Health Department. They have a regulated community. Their regulated community is going to be off limits for certain gifts. Not going to worry about that one so much for all of you. We’re going to look at vendors and potential vendors. But now look at that last bullet point. People who have a vested or a specific interest in matters before your public entity.

[23:28] These could be students, these could be parents, maybe they're major donors, etc.. Now, before anybody get concerned here, I am not suggesting that your parents, that your students, that even the vendors that you interact with and so on and so forth, we are not suggesting they're improper people. I do not mean to imply that they must all have improper motives under the statute, not at all. But what the law, what 102.03(E) is saying is that these folks would in fact be improper sources of substantial things of value. Now, this is where I must tell you, there are plenty of gifts out there that are not substantial. There are plenty of gifts that we call nominal. We use that Latin phrase “de minimis.” The things that would not rise to that level of substantial. These are very modest, maybe promotional, perhaps even trinket-y kinds of things. Maybe it's a one time very modest meal at a Subway or a Bob Evans. Maybe it's some other food item like the tin of cookies or popcorn or a little box of donut holes. Maybe it's promotional items like a coffee mug, maybe it's a visor you might wear. It's a pen or a pencil or a stress ball something along those lines: nominal, de minimis, not substantial, not illegal. These are not the things that the Ethics Commission would consider to rise to the level of opening a full blown criminal investigation. When we talk about this word substantial, you will find that word in the statute, when we talk about these things, my guess is the examples that might come to your mind, either through your knowledge of cases the Ethics Commission has had or even, again, theoretically, that you would assume, “Well even if I don't know for sure this has happened, I'm guessing the Ethics Commission would be concerned if someone in public service accepted these kinds of gifts.” My guess is your brain is going more to these categories, as it should.

[25:34] Again, please understand, what you're seeing here on this screen, this is not an all inclusive, encompassing list. Please do not look at this slide and think, “Well, I don't see home construction on this list, so that must be okay.” Not at all. This is just a smattering of examples, but you kind of get a feel here for the types of cases that the Ethics Commission has opened as a full blown criminal investigation. There is quite the difference, isn’t there, between someone in public service accepting a little box of golf tees that has the, some company's logo on the box, versus that company picking up the tab for 18 holes of golf with green fees, cart rental, and food and beverage. Right? You know, there's a difference. So do we. We have seen everything over the years of the Ethics Commission’s existence. From very expensive meals, to Broadway tickets, to travel expenses, to sporting tickets, to major discounts, to free furniture or appliances. There's so much that we could talk about under the Ethics Law. The bottom line of this part of the Ethics Law is simply this: if, if that gift that that vendor, that that parent is offering to you is worth more than kind of one of those promotional feel good items, you're always going to be safe if in fact, you simply say, “No, thank you.” Now I'm going to do some Q&A. And the very first Q&A that we're going to do together gives you additional information that might surprise some of you and others of you might be saying, “I've been waiting to hear that because I thought that was the case and she hasn't said it yet.” So let's jump in and see. There is an exception for a group of people in public school districts. So let's tackle that question first. Here's our person. So let's say I'm an instructor. Let's say that I am the Spanish teacher at a middle school somewhere at a public school in Ohio.

[27:35] And the question becomes this: Would I, as that instructor, be allowed to accept a free textbook from a vendor? The vendor sends it to me, says, “Hey, could you review it? Could you give us some feedback? And you know what? Even if you decide not to use it in your class, you can keep that textbook.” Now, I will tell you, probably a lot of you are thinking, “Well, yes, because they could accept it and donate it to the school library.” That is absolutely true. There is no denying that. But would it also surprise you if I told you, “Oh, by the way, that teacher could also keep it for him or herself.” There is an exception to this part of the Ethics Law. Did you know teachers who do not have any administrative authority are exempt from some of these parts of the Ethics Law? Did you know that? So, for example, if I am a teacher who does not also coach, I don't also head up a department like the foreign language or the science department, I don't supervise other staff, I'm not also a dean, I'm not also a vice principal. So if I say I'm only a teacher, please know that I mean that in the best sense, not in the pejorative. What I mean is my sole responsibility is classroom instruction. A lot of you are going, “And that's enough, too, have you seen the paperwork we have to do?” Fair enough. But if in fact your sole responsibility is classroom instruction and not all that other stuff, the coaching and the administrative stuff, you in fact are exempt from this gift part of the Ohio Ethics Law that you would be allowed to accept that textbook, let's say. If you still choose to donate it to the library, that's lovely.

[29:20] And you're thinking, “I simply don't have any more room in my house,” that's fine. But the Ethics Commission cannot open a full blown criminal investigation against a teacher who has no administrative authority for accepting some of these gifts. What I've been told, the historic context of that, was along the lines of the legislature was recognizing, “Hey, if I am in fact the middle school teacher who's accompanying the eighth graders on the bus trip to Washington, D.C., that tour company the district retains, they're allowed to comp me with a couple of nights at a hotel and the bus ride.” Right? That's sort of the history behind there. But let's say now, let's go back to an administrator. Let's say now that I'm a school administrator and I’m going to this conference in another city and I'm wondering, “Am I allowed to go on this behind the scenes tour, you know, that there's this vendor, etc., doing business with our school district?” No, no. Those kinds of what they used to call a boondoggle, those little trips and everything. If someone is attending a conference as part of their school job, that's fine and dandy. But all these companies that are selling things, that are wanting to sell services and books, etc. to our school. They are not wining and dining us while we are there. Are they allowed to sponsor some luncheon that every single person on site is invited to luncheon right there on that conference site? Yes, that's a different scenario, but the whole taking me out for tours, and ballgames, and expensive dinners. Absolutely not. While we're at that conference, let me ask you this: Let's say that I'm attending an educational conference, that's, it’s a legitimate conference, and there is a door prize. Right? And I win a flat screen TV that was donated by one of those vendors that have a booth there that they're handing out the literature. Would I be allowed to accept that?

[31:06] Now, I'm going to put up the “maybe” slide one more time. And here's why, though, everybody, if you are thinking there's any circumstance in which that school administrator is allowed to take the TV home, to the man cave or to the she shed, then the answer is “No.” The reason I put a “Maybe” up for this one is if, in fact, I say, “You know what, the school district absolutely can use this television. We've been wanting to put something in the front hallway to do announcements. We’ve been wanting something in the library. We need something, even, in the study hall classroom for kids that might have, you know, some disabilities that they need a larger screen to look at things on their Chromebook,” etc.. If in fact this is something accepted for the schools use to carry out the school's mission, that's fine. It's just not going to go home with me. All right. I decided to go to the world of ESCs, right? Because I haven’t been there yet in this, in this webinar. So let's say that, this ESC, they do this five year contract, we're going to buy software, hardware, etc., and the company says, “You know, your employees are allowed to take advantage of this, you know, they can buy Microsoft Office for 15 bucks for their home computers, you know, if they just show us their you know, if they show us their their school badge,” let's say. The truth is, if that is a discount, that's relatively modest and it's uniform, it's offered to everybody at the district, that actually would be okay. Just as a special Double Jeopardy or Final Jeopardy kind of question, do you know who the one person or persons would be that couldn't accept it? The person who negotiated the deal. So if I'm the school treasurer and I'm the one who negotiated the purchase of that software, hardware and, “Hey, they're going to throw in this discount.” I'm the one person that can't accept it.

[32:47] Just as kind of a way of keeping me honest. What about this one, everybody? Okay, so now to make the absolute best decision on which of these companies to go with, would I, as Treasurer, be allowed to let this IT company fly me to LA to see that product in use. The answer is: “Absolutely not.” It doesn't matter if the contract hasn’t been signed, it doesn't matter if you say, “I promise it won’t influence me.” We cannot accept those substantial things from our improper sources. There's no “What if?” and “But!” there, okay. Now I mentioned so if I’m a school teacher who has no administrative authority, I already established, I am then allowed to accept the free trip from the tour company. I know though, that admins, school administrators, go on those trips as well. Can they accept free travel from the tour company? Did you know? The answer is “No.” But before anybody panic, you're thinking, “We're seriously going to make this assistant principal pay for his or her own way to hear our 14 year olds chatter on on a bus for hours?” No, it doesn't mean they have to pay out of pocket. You know what it just means, it just means when this, well, my guess is your treasurer already knows this, when they are negotiating with those tour companies, and whichever one they choose, it's already identified, in that contract, “This is how many administrators need to go.” Because the company then is gonna kind of factor that into the overall cost that essentially that that cost gets passed on to the kids are actually paying to go on that trip. That's the difference.

[34:18] The teachers without administrative authority, they can accept it free and clear, no nothing. The administrators, they don’t have to pay out of pocket. it just has to be wound in or kind of drawn in to that contract and accounted for. How about this one. So let's say I'm a school board member and I helped to negotiate with some company to do snow plowing, you know, of school driveways and parking lots, etc. and they're saying, “Hey, the negotiations are complete. It couldn't influence me because we already signed the contract.” Could that company plow my driveway, my lane at home? Absolutely not. It doesn't matter. This isn’t the bribery statute it’s a whole different part of the Ethics, excuse me, whole different part of the criminal code. Right? This is not a bribe. It says I simply can't accept it. Whether or not it could influence me is actually irrelevant at that point. So we've already talked about this exception. If I'm a teacher with no administrative authority, can I accept normal gifts from our students? Yes, that actually is okay. But, what if I’m a teacher who's also a coach? Could I take, let's say, uniform like some sort of workout gear from that uniform company? No, because I am not - and again, I mean, this is the best way - only a teacher. You know, I don't mean that in a bad way. I am a teacher, but also a coach. This is non-negotiable. Don't don't write mean emails yelling at me and saying, “But let's talk about this,” that, “I don't make a lot of money.” Okay? The truth is you now have administrative authority when you become a coach. So we're not going to take the free workout gear or the free shoes. If the company, that uniform company, wants to donate free stuff and it gets passed, voted on to maybe a kid whose Mom and Dad can't afford good workout clothes or running shoes, that's a different scenario that's something you can discuss at your school. You and I aren’t going to accept it though, okay? How about a company that says, “You know what? We have this extra copier that another client ordered and then they disappeared. They never picked it up. They never paid for it. Can I donate it to the district?” The truth is, “Yes.”

[36:11] I know why people would say, “But that's just trying to influence you to go with them again!” I get that. But the actual donation to the school district is certainly not prohibited. Before we leave this gift area let me just mention one other area of the law quickly here. This is Supplemental Compensation, no one can supplement our compensation. No one can augment our salaries. This comes up in two very innocent ways for school districts: One is student teachers. This is simply a question we receive from, let's say college, maybe let's say Bowling Green State University placed a student teacher in your classroom and at the end of their time with you that semester, whatever, Bowling Green says, “Hey, Ethics Commission, are we allowed to send a check as a ‘Thank you’ to that teacher to thank him or her for mentoring our student?” The answer is, “No, they wouldn't be allowed to send a check to that teacher.” Could they send that gift to the school district? Yes. And if the school district chooses to give that to the teacher, that's fine. Are they required to? No. If the school decides to keep it for a general fund or they're building up a new computer lab or they have to replace some books in the library, they're allowed to use it any way they want. The other place this supplemental compensation comes up is in coaching. So, for example, let's say that I'm the football coach. You may chuckle aloud with me at this point at the thought that I’m ever your football coach. Right? But let's pretend I'm your football coach and a booster club says “We never want Coach Willeke to leave. She is the best thing since sliced bread and the Super Bowl. We don't ever want her to leave. So we did a fundraiser and we're going to give her a year end bonus or a Christmas bonus.” If the booster club wants to give a gift like that, again, to the district, that's fine. Same thing with student teaching.

[38:09] Is the district allowed to pass it on to me as the coach? They can. Are they obligated to? No. If the PTA or the booster club says, “We're only giving this money to the district if you promise to give it to the coach.” All bets are off. Sorry, can't take it. They're not allowed to earmark it like that. Right? Again, I'm not saying these things come up in some sort of sinister, nefarious way. They're legitimate questions that do arise under this part of the Ethics Law. If you ever have questions, do check out our website. And I'm going to specifically direct you to a document at the end of this webinar that can specifically speak to some of these issues that do arise in public school districts. That's not to say that they're arising because something bad is happening. It's just because as long as real live human beings populate government, these kind of issues will arise. These questions will come up and we are happy to answer those questions and steer people on the straight and narrow before they've acted on a potential violation. Because our goal is to keep everybody in compliance. We are going to tackle now another part of the Ohio Ethics Law: Public Contracts. You know, in a nutshell, do you know what a public contract is? It is any time money is spent by a public agency or for the use of that public agency. So the money from the booster club, etc., or that school district just spends money on construction or on school books or on salaries or whatever. Any time public money is spent for, or by the use of a public agency, that's a public contract. It's perfectly normal. It happens every day. But, when you're talking public money, you kinda have to expect there are going to be some restrictions. And here we go. In a nutshell, here's this part of the law. The law is saying you and I cannot try to assist, garner, secure, we can't try to get a public contract either for ourselves, for a member of our family, or for a business associate we have in our private outside lives. I grant you, this looks an awful lot like a conflicts slide that we talked about earlier.

[40:08] You know, this part of the law gets bumped up from a first-degree misdemeanor that we saw in conflicts and gifts up to a fourth-degree felony. And “Why?” you may ask? Well, I'll be happy to tell you. It's because in this part of the Ethics Law someone would potentially be using their public position to secure public money either for themselves, or their families, or their outside business associates. So let's say, for example, let's pretend that this summer, when the buildings are a little less used and populated, let's say that you are going to retain the services - “you” meaning a district, not you individually - your district is going to retain the services of, let's say, a commercial window cleaning business. I'm cool with that, right? I like clean windows, too. Now, let's say that you think to yourself, “Well, you know, I am a school employee or official and it just so happens that, let's say, my adult daughter owns a commercial window washing business here in the county.” So here would be my first question. If we were all together in person in a room, I would ask you, “Is your adult daughter allowed to even pursue the possibility of that public contract with the district?” Is she even allowed to throw her hat in the ring? To submit a bid? To go online and submit an application or whatever? The answer is “Yes.” Your daughter, if she’s not a public employee or a public official. She can go after whatever contract she wants. The restriction here isn’t on your daughter. It's on you and on me, that we would say, “Hey, sweetie, Momma loves you so much. But you're on your own. I am not putting in a good word for you. I am not hand-delivering some bid spec response. I'm not talking you up. I'm not talking down the competition. I'm not recommending, advocating, lobbying behind the scenes. I'm not signing off on, I'm not voting on. I'm - nothing! I'm not even going to whisper into somebody’s ear or send a text message asking that they take a special look at your request to do business with that district.”

[42:12] If, in fact, that kind of recusal is possible, then yes, it would be possible for, let's say, your daughter to get that contract, your outside business associate. That's where recusal is essential. It's mandatory under criminal law. It's not just left up to your best professional senses or decision making. The law says you are mandated to step away from all aspects. Again, this would be any time someone in your family, someone that you have a business relationship with your private life is going after that, in this case, window washing business or any business in the world, certainly ourselves. I want to believe that it's fairly obvious that if we were all together in a room, that we could all unanimously agree that it would be a very bad idea for me, if I'm a public employee or public official, I'm hoping we can all agree, it would be a very bad idea for me, if I were a school official or employee, and I, in my private life, I own a window washing business, can we all unanimously agree that it would be a very bad idea for me in my school role to authorize a window washing contract with my own company for my own school district? Are we all on board? Bad idea, like literally fourth-degree felony bad idea. And keeping in mind, everybody, nobody is exempt from this part of the Ethics Law. If any of you teachers are saying, “Well, I can kind of relax now because clearly I'm not subject to this law.” No!, no, no That's all over! That stuff that you're not subject to, that’s all over with. Everybody in public service is subject - your board members, your teachers, your admins, your, your guidance counselors, your custodian, everybody affiliated with that district is subject to this part of the Ethics Law. So all we would say here is again, recuse, recuse, recuse. If my family member, if that person I do business with in my private life, they want that contract, I simply stay out of it. Now here is that inaccurate leap about that bullet-point “Self” that I want to note. We've all agreed, I hope, that it would be a very bad idea for me to authorize my own contract with my own school district, I think we're all on board there.

[44:05] Here is the inaccurate leap that people make. People will say to me in my speeches, “All right, Susan, I get it. But heck, if, if I'm just like my, the adult daughter example you gave then I should be okay. Right? For example, you just said, Ethics Lady, that if my adult daughter wants to go after that window washing business, that she can, as long as she is able to be completely recused from all aspects of that discussion, deliberating, decision making, etc..” And that's an accurate statement. That does not translate into that first bullet point meaning this: “Well, you know, I am a school official or employee and I own a window washing business in my private life. But I promise Ethics Commission, I promise you that I will recuse from all the discussion and the deliberating and the decision making on who's going to get that window washing business. I will completely recuse from every single aspect of that at my school district. Therefore, I, too, should be able to get that contract with my district, just like we said my daughter could.” No, absolutely not. The answer here is a resounding “No.” There is a very specific prohibition under the Ohio Ethics Law that, in a nutshell, says to all of us in public service that we should never be venders to our own public entity, in your case, school district. Now, when I say a vendor, please don't think formally there. Don't think to yourself, “Well, so you mean if it requires bids? You mean that if it's a high enough dollar amount that we were required to put out a call for, you know, secret bids or whatever?” No, I don't care if it's five bucks, I don't care if it's a five MILLION dollar construction project, or if it's 50 bucks worth of t-shirts that you're printing at your home business and bringing in and selling to the school, so they can give them to the mathletes that are going for a competition in Columbus. You can not have your own school district as a client in your private business. Those two parts of your life must be kept separate.

[46:26] Okay. Are you ready for some Q&A on the public contract part of the Ethics Law? Everybody ready for a few more? Let's tackle these everybody. Okay. So how about this one? So now - I am a lot of different people in your school district in this webinar today! Right now I'm an occupational therapist, let's say. And, so, my husband owns this construction company. I have nothing to do with it. I'm not part owner. I'm not even on paper an owner. I have nothing to do with it. So my husband's going to go after that construction contract. Do I still need to recuse myself? A) if I'm not the owner, and B) if I promise you I can remain objective during that process. It doesn't matter, folks. Yes, the answer is “Yes.” I must recuse myself. Whether or not I trust my ability to remain objective is not an argument under the law, I have to stay back. Alright how about this one everybody? This goes back to the Sales to Public Entities. So I'm a school employee, in my private life I paint houses or commercial properties, etc.. Excuse me. So I say, “Am I allowed to sell my painting services?” You know, “Hey, I'm not going to be the decision maker. I have nothing to do with that. I'm just wondering if over the summer if I could come in and paint some classrooms because I have a painting business, I'm good to detail like that.” Yeah. I hope you guys are getting these all right. Even if you're in the privacy of your own home or classroom watching this webinar. No. We can not sell goods and services to our own school districts. If you know the Ethics Law very well, I grant you might be aware that there is an exception to this part of the Ethics Law. If you are wondering if you can ever meet the exception, again, I will direct you to a fact sheet, kind of a document, that you can look at that does apply this statute to school districts.

[48:12] There is an exception, it is the EXCEPTION though! The “once in a blue moon, gee, the stars aligned just right” exception. It is NOT the general rule. In general, if there's anybody watching this webinar right now, that you, in your private life, you own or co-own a business in your private life - you sell widgets, you do consulting - I wish you joy and success in those endeavors. I am going to ask you to watch out for conflicts. And I'm going to ask you to conclude, right here, right now, that you will never sell goods and services to your own school district. All right. How about this one? Now, now I’m not an occupational therapist everyone, everybody. Now I'm a school board member. And by the way, in this hypothetical, my husband is the calculus teacher at the high school. And I'm wondering, “My husband's a teacher. Am I allowed to vote on the union contract?” Some of you might be surprised that the answer is, in general, “yes.” If my husband, if my son or daughter, brother, sister, whatever. If my family member is universally impacted just the same as every other person that would be impacted by that union contract, then yes, I can, if they're not singled out. However, there are some exceptions. So, for example, these Advisory Opinions, which again, you can find on our website here. You like my “family” here on this slide? That's what I reference here, my family, right? If in fact my family member, the example I used is “my husband”, if my husband is a union board member, if he is a union officer, if he's on the negotiating team negotiating that contract, then no, I couldn’t. But if he is, and again I say the word “just” with respect and love, if he’s just one of the many employees in the district would be impacted the same as everybody else I wouldn't have to recuse myself as a board member from that vote.

[50:09] Now, because we like exceptions here, let me give you one exception. This Advisory Opinion, you might think, this is, we’re schools, we're not medical doctors. Here's why this one is up here. Let's say I am a school board member. Let's say that my husband is the calculus teacher. Let's say that I'm wondering if I can vote on his union contract and let's say, like normal, the Ethics Commission said that, in general, “Yes, you can, as long as he is not specifically impacted.” Here's the big “unless.” Right. Here's another “unless.” Unless I, as the school member, receive my health care coverage from my spouse's school job. Now, the Ethics Commission has interpreted that to mean, I have to step back. Now, I totally get this is a lot of information to get in a short amount of time. So before we leave the public contract world, let me tell you something. Two of our most commonly violated parts of the Ohio Ethics Law can be found in the public contract part of our statute. One of them is people selling goods and services to their own public entity, in your case, your own school district. Right? That I am a teacher, but I'm also the cheer, like, cheerleading advisor and I am wanting to sell my handmade jewelry to the school so we can then distribute to the cheerleaders and to some of the moms for a really great year of overseeing the cheerleading squad. Right. I can't, I can't sell my goods and services to my own public entity. That’s one of them. Do you know what the other most commonly violated part of the Ethics Law is, also in the public contract part of the law? Some of you may know it in your brain - nepotism! Right?

[51:53] It's not illegal, if any of you happen to have a family member who happens to be related to you by blood, by marriage, who also works for the school district, that is not an automatic prohibition under this part of the Ethics Law. If you got your job years after your family member and your family member had nothing to do with it. Or if two people working at that district get married, they didn’t help each other get the job. They're both there already, right? We’re not going to see that concern of nepotism. Now, we would say we can't have one person directly supervising another. We need at least one level of management between them. But in general, the actual crime, the fourth-degree public contract felony, is when someone who was already in public service has a family member who is pursuing a job with that district, and the current employee does not recuse him or herself. That's illegal. You can see the definition of family here on this slide. (Spouse/domestic partner, Sibling, Parent/step-parent, Child/step-child, Grandparent, Grandchild) Incidentally, it doesn't matter if your children, grandchildren, etc. live in your home, they're still considered your family and you would have to recuse from any action related to their public job hunt. The exception is extended relatives, not listed on this slide like aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and in-laws. Any of those relatives are only considered family under the Ethics Law if that extended relative actually lives in your home. So if any of these family members we've discussed is looking for a job at your public school district, wish them well and then stay far away. I will note on our website we do have a “commonly asked questions” like a FAQ on nepotism. But I also a fact sheet here, you can kind of see what it looks like a little bit. I also have a fact sheet specifically related to the hiring of minor kids. For example, if your school district ever hires, let's say high schoolers to do custodial work in the summertime, I would ask that you maybe take a look at this fact sheet if your teenager might be interested in that work.

[53:56] If you’re in HR this is a great factsheet to disseminate electronically in the spring before summer jobs get posted. It's simply a reminder that the restrictions on hiring our minor kids are even more stringent than they would be if your kid was 18 or older, a legal adult. So if that's a reality for anybody take a look at this fact sheet or at that Advisory Opinion, and that will help guide you on the right path. Again, I totally recognize here that what I'm doing is probably generating more questions than we can answer in a one hour webinar. But I hope that you will feel confident when this webinar is done, in giving us a call and saying, “I do need more info and I need it from you because I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do next.” We would be happy to help you do that. And the very last part of the statute that I will go over today - “Post-Employment.” I will note this is another area where teachers who have no administrative authority are exempt. However, if someone's thinking, “I just want to stay on the straight and narrow, I'm going to follow it.” That's completely marvelous. But I do confess that this is a part of the law that directly regulates people who are not teachers without administrative authority. So if you're, again, if you're a coach, if you're an administrator, if you're a front office person, if you’re a guidance counselor, if you’re a secretary, if you’re a superintendent, you work in the superintendent’s office, you are subject to this part of law. And here's what this part of the Law essentially says: I cannot represent someone for one year after I've left public service, one year for school districts, I can't represent them on matters I had worked on at my old job.

[55:26] So let's just break that down here real quickly. I put the easiest one at the bottom. Let's say that I left my school district and I go to work, my last day at the school district was Friday, and on Monday I go to work in my new job and they ask me, “Hey, Susan, will you call so-and-so about thus and such?” Here’s my question. First one I put at the bottom. Has it been at least a year since I left? If it's been more than a year, this is expired. You don’t even have to worry anymore. If you go, “Yeah, it’s been less than a year.” Then you ask yourself, “Is this representation? Is this communicating on behalf of my new boss or client or, you know, company or whatever, am I communicating on their behalf to someone in government?” In fairness, if my new boss says, “Could you call our law firm, could you call our private client?” That's not representation. This only kicks in if I would be communicating on behalf of my new job to someone in government. And then the final bullet point: “Is this a matter, a case, a proceeding, whatever? Is this something of which I have been personally involved?” If you can genuinely say “No, I have never had anything to do with that project. I was a million miles away.” Well, then you could reach out to your old district or that public agency or ODE or whatever on behalf of your new boss.

[56:36] For those of you that would say, “Gosh, I'm pretty involved in a lot of these decisions,” it doesn't mean in your first year at some new job that you're going to feign ignorance of everything that you're smart about. It just means that you're not going to be the public face and voice on that issue you were a public face and voice on. If any of you are kind of wondering, “I need more information, that's a lot of info to get in a short amount of time - what's the purpose? What's the intent?” The intention is to protect the public. What I don't want to have happen is: I leave my job on Friday at the Ethics Commission, and on one day I'm calling up on behalf of my new boss to my old pals, going, “Hey, you know that project we're working on? Could you change directions? That would really help out my new boss.” We can't even have that unfair influence, even with former colleagues.

[57:16] Again, have I given you tons of information? Absolutely. So, as I mentioned, there is a document on our website, now, I will tell you, you can the see the front, the front page here, I even printed it for you. If you would like to look at this electronically, if you want more information, we're going to show you right now how to find this document on our website. on our website. So once you have located and read this very helpful factsheet, if you still have more questions, please don't hesitate in reaching out to us. Here's our website. That's our general phone number. I gave you my email address, but you certainly must not feel obligated to call me. If you would rather speak right to an Advisory Attorney, if you want to talk to one of our investigators or anyone else at the Ethics Commission, we'd be thrilled to help you with anything you've heard today or anything else that you want to know about.

[58:23] So with that, on behalf of the Ethics Commission, and on behalf of all of us who call Ohio home, there are, there's an inadequate number of words in the English language to fully thank you for all that you do in helping our youth. Thank you so much for what you do, for preparing today's generation for all the future things that they are going to enjoy, the adventures they’ll have, and all the ways that they positively impact our country, our state and our global community. Thank you so much for letting me be part of that, even if for one hour. If we can be of any other assistance, please don't hesitate to give us a call. Otherwise, I hope your school year and your entire year is good, productive and joyful. Thank you so much. Be well.