Whether an employee may accept an all expense paid seminar trip from a vendor to attend a seminar offered by a manufacturer of products carried by the vendor.

             The Ethics Code conduct rule would be violated if the employee accepts the gift of the all expense paid trip.

             The requester is an employee in a County department. He received an invitation from a vendor for an all expense paid trip to attend a seminar sponsored by a manufacturer of material sold by the vendor. The seminar will take place at the manufacturer's plant in another state. The trip will take three days and includes transportation, all meals, hotel fees, evening entertainment, a factory tour, and product demonstrations. The seminar will include some topics for which professional education credits are available. The vendor advised that the seminar would be "a great trip for someone that is involved with [certain materials], especially if you have any more new projects coming up in the next few years."

Ethics Code Provisions

 

            In 2006, Council enacted a new gift law. New Castle County Code Section 2.03.104 H4 prohibits officials and employees from accepting gifts of other than negligible value from vendors and potential vendors unless the Ethics Commission approves the acceptance in a prior Advisory Opinion. The employee in this case has made an appropriate request.¹

 

            New Castle Ethics Code Section 2.03.104A prohibits conduct which undermines public confidence in the impartiality of a governmental body with which a County employee is associated by creating the appearance that the official actions and decisions of the employee or department are influenced by factors other than the merits.²

 

            An improper appearance is created when a reasonable member of the public "with knowledge of all the relevant circumstances that a reasonable inquiry would disclose, [would hold] a perception that the official's ability to carry out [official duties] with integrity, impartiality and competence is impaired." The standard for judging the creation of such an appearance for judicial public officials has been described in Delaware courts as "conduct [which] would create in reasonable minds, with knowledge of all the relevant circumstances that a reasonable inquiry would disclose, a perception that the official's ability to carry out [official duties] with integrity, impartiality and competence is impaired." In re Williams, 701 A.2d 825, 832 (Del. Super. 1997). In determining the relevant circumstances, the courts advise the Commission to look at the totality of facts. The Commission has long applied this standard to the conduct of County officials and employees.

 

Prior Advisory Opinions

 

            Even prior to the enactment of the gift law, the Commission devoted several Advisory Opinions to the topic of acceptance of gifts from vendors. In Advisory Opinion 05-16, the Commission prohibited the acceptance of a complimentary registration for a conference sponsored by a County vendor because the conference included presentations about the vendor's products and the person attending had authority to affect the County's future contractual relationship with the vendor. In its reasoning, the Commission cited Advisory Opinion 04-08: "A reasonable competitor may well believe that [the vendor] is using the waiver of the fee to influence the County in its favor and that a future award of contract to the [the vendor] may be influenced by goodwill generated from the gift and not strictly on the merits of the product.

 

            In Advisory Opinion 03-07, the Commission prohibited the acceptance of an all expense paid trip by an official who had direct and/or indirect decision-making authority for future purchases from a potential vendor. It held that "A reasonable member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would suspect that the vendor had an illegitimate purpose in offering the trip or that the official's ability to carry out his duties impartially in regard to the vendor would be impaired."

             The requester has been offered the trip because of his status as a County employee and his professional expertise in advising on products purchased for use by the County. The vendor clearly states its intention in offering the trip: to affect the employee's judgment about future purchases. The Code disallows any gift "which is intended or received to influence the . . . judgment the recipient, or which creates the reasonable perception in the public that the . . . judgment of the recipient would be influenced or impaired by the gift." In addition, the factual situation underlying in this request is not significantly different from those described in the above mentioned Advisory Opinions which disallowed the acceptance of similar gifts. The Commission believes the reasonable member of the public would believe that acceptance of this all expense paid trip from the vendor would influence the judgment of the employee and would violate the Ethics Code.

             The Ethics Code conduct rule would be violated if the employee accepts the gift offered by the vendor.

 

            In issuing this Advisory Opinion, the Ethics Commission is applying the New Castle County Code of Ethics, which establishes the minimum level of ethical conduct required of County officials and employees.

 

 

______________________

Thomas P. Collins, Chairperson

 

Decision: Unanimous