§ 2-13-280. Ethical conduct.

(a)

Employee conflict of interest. It shall be unlawful for any city employee to participate directly or indirectly in a purchase when the employee knows that:

(1)

The employee or any member of the employee's immediate family has a financial interest pertaining to the purchase; or

(2)

Any other person, business, or organization with whom the employee or any member of an employee's immediate family is negotiating or has an arrangement concerning prospective employment is involved in the purchase.

(b)

Gratuities and kickbacks. It shall be unlawful for any person to offer, give, or agree to give any employee or former employee, or for any employee or former employee to solicit, demand, accept, or agree to accept from another person, a gratuity or an offer of employment in connection with any decision, approval, disapproval, recommendation, preparation or any part of a program requirement or a purchase request, influencing the content of any specification or purchasing standard, rendering of advice, investigation, auditing, or in any other advisory capacity in any proceeding or application, request for ruling, determination, claim or controversy, or other particular matter, pertaining to any program requirement or a contract or subcontract, or to any solicitation or proposal therefore. It shall be unlawful for any payment, gratuity, or offer of employment to be made by or on behalf of a subcontractor under a contract to the prime contractor or higher tier subcontractor or any person associated therewith, as an inducement for the award of a subcontract or order.

(c)

Prohibition against contingent fees. It shall be unlawful for a business or person to retain another business or person for the purpose of soliciting award of a city contract if payment by the original business or person to that retained business or person is contingent upon said award. This shall apply whether said payment is referred to as a commission, percentage, brokerage, or contingent fee. Bona fide employees of a firm or a bona fide established commercial selling agency shall be excepted.

(d)

Contemporaneous employment prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any employee who is participating directly or indirectly in the purchasing process to become or to be, while such an employee, the employee of any person contracting with the governmental body by whom the employee is employed.

(e)

Waiver from contemporaneous employment prohibition and other conflicts of interest. The city commission or the city manager may grant a waiver from the employee conflict of interest provision or the contemporaneous employment provision upon making a written determination that:

(1)

The contemporaneous employment or financial interest of the employee has been publicly disclosed;

(2)

The city employee will be able to perform his or her purchasing functions without actual or apparent bias or favoritism; or

(3)

The award will be in the best interest of the city.

(f)

Use of confidential information. It shall be unlawful for any employee or former employee knowingly to use confidential information for actual or anticipated personal gain, or for the actual or anticipated personal gain of any other person.

(g)

Recovery of value transferred or received in breach of ethical standards. The value of anything transferred or received in breach of the ethical standards of this section by an employee or a nonemployee may be recovered from both employee and nonemployee.

Upon a showing that a subcontractor made a kickback to a prime contractor or a higher tier subcontractor in connection with the award or a subcontract or order thereunder, it shall be conclusively presumed that the amount thereof was included in the price of the subcontract or order and ultimately borne by the city and will be recoverable hereunder from the recipient. In addition, that amount may also be recovered from the subcontractor making such kickbacks. Recovery from one (1) offending party shall not preclude recovery from other offending parties.

(h)

Penalties. To the extent that violation of the ethical standards of conduct set forth in this section constitute violations of a city ordinance or state statute, they shall be punishable as provided therein. The civil penalties set forth in this section and available for the violation of provisions of this article shall be in addition to such criminal penalties.

(Ord. No. 1185, § 28, 6-22-04)