Dear Mr. :

 

This will serve as an informal approval of your request to employ in a private capacity a company with which you deal in your position as Rehabilitation Specialist for the Department of Community Services, New Castle County. You asked last year, prior to the disbanding of the prior Ethics Commission, for an opinion as to whether you could employ the company to replace a roof on your private home in Maryland. You stated that the reason you wished to contract with them is that you know the quality of the work they do and you know that they charge a reasonable price for their performance.

 

When you came to the Ethics Commission, you chose to waive confidentiality in order to appear before the Commission in its public session and to answer any questions Commission members might have. You likewise have waived that confidentiality with respect to this opinion in order to allow us to proceed as soon as possible, despite our not yet having fully engaged an attorney for the prupose of writing formal opinions such as this.

 

For purposes of our opinion, we assume the truth of those items asserted by you: if our assumptions are incorrect or if you have misstated anything, we ask that you notify us immediately to determine whether or not that might alter our conclusions. We understand that in the course of your employment for New Castle County, there are situations requiring emergency contracts for rehabilitation under Community Block Grant programs. We further understand that in these "emergency" situations, the normal process of obtaining multiple bids is not followed. Instead, a known contractor is requested to give a bid, and this is either approved or not, based upon your judgment and that of your supervisor. Continuing the discussion of this procedure, it is our further understanding that all determinations of "emergency" and all contract awards are [sic] Under these circumstances it is our belief that your engaging one of the companies with which you deal, to provide a service to you in your private home, is not a conflict of interest nor even an appearance of impropriety as would be prohibiteed under the New Castle County Ethics Code. As stated above, please let us know if there are any misapprehensions on the part of the Ethics Commission as stated, or any of the assumptions we have made and stated are incorrect.

 

Thank you very much for having the insight and concern to request this opinion in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

 

Very truly yours,

 

 

Dennis S. Clower

Chair

 

DSC:aw

 

cc: Diane Baker, General Manager, Community Services Dept.