§ 2-261. Solicitation or acceptance of gifts.

(a)

A unified government representative shall not solicit any gift or knowingly accept any gift, directly or indirectly, from any person that the unified government representative knows or has reason to know:

(1)

Is doing business with the, unified government representative, the unified government board of commissioners or a member thereof, or as to the unified government representative, with their agency; or

(2)

Has a financial interest that may be substantially and materially affected, in a manner distinguishable from the public generally, by the performance or nonperformance of the unified government representative's duty.

(b)

Unless a gift of any of the following would tend to call into question the impartiality and the independence of judgment of the unified government representative receiving it or, if of significant value, would give the appearance of doing so, or, if of significant value, the recipient unified government representative believes, or has reason to believe, that it is designed to do so, subsection (a) of this section does not apply to:

(1)

Meals and beverages;

(2)

Ceremonial gifts or awards;

(3)

Unsolicited gifts of nominal value or trivial items of informational value;

(4)

Reasonable expenditures for food, travel, lodging, and scheduled entertainment of the unified government representative and spouse for a meeting, that are made in return for participation in a panel or speaking engagement at the meeting;

(5)

Gifts of tickets or free admission extended to an unified government representative to attend a professional or intercollegiate sporting event or charitable, cultural, or political event, if the purpose of such gift or admission is a courtesy or ceremony extended to the unified government representative's office;

(6)

A specific gift or class of gifts which the ethics administrator exempts from the operation of this section upon a finding, in writing, that acceptance of the gift or class of gifts would not be detrimental to the impartial conduct of the business of the unified government and that the gift is purely personal and private in nature;

(7)

Gifts from a person related by blood, marriage, or a member of the household; or

(8)

Honoraria.

(c)

The ethics administrator may by advisory opinion define further exemptions from this section as necessary or that are consistent with business practices generally.

(Ord. No. O-75-09, § 1, 10-1-2009)