H-3435.3  _______________________________________________

                          HOUSE BILL 2511

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1998 Regular Session

By Representatives Wolfe, Chopp, Ogden, Gardner, Butler, Appelwick and Anderson

Read first time 01/14/98.  Referred to Committee on Government Administration.

Creating a limited exception for members of boards, commissions, and committees to have a small financial interest in the board's, commission's, or committee's transactions.

    AN ACT Relating to ethics in public service; and amending RCW 42.52.030.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

    Sec. 1.  RCW 42.52.030 and 1996 c 213 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) No state officer or state employee, except as provided in subsections (2) ((and)), (3), (4), and (5) of this section, may be beneficially interested, directly or indirectly, in a contract, sale, lease, purchase, or grant that may be made by, through, or is under the supervision of the officer or employee, in whole or in part, or accept, directly or indirectly, any compensation, gratuity, or reward from any other person beneficially interested in the contract, sale, lease, purchase, or grant.

    (2) No officer or employee of an institution of higher education or of the Spokane intercollegiate research and technology institute, except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, may be beneficially interested, directly or indirectly, in a contract or grant that may be made by, through, or is under the supervision of the officer or employee, in whole or in part, or accept, directly or indirectly, any compensation, gratuity, or reward from any other person beneficially interested in the contract or grant, unless the institution of higher education or the Spokane intercollegiate research and technology institute has in effect a written administrative process to identify and manage, reduce, or eliminate conflicting interests with respect to such transactions as adopted pursuant to the national science investigator financial disclosure (GPM 510) 1995 and the public health service regulations, 42 C.F.R. Part 50 and 45 C.F.R. Subtitle A as each of those regulations existed on June 6, 1996, and the state employee or state officer has complied with such policy.

    (3) No state officer or state employee, except as provided in subsections (4) and (5) of this section, may participate in a transaction involving the state in his or her official capacity with a person of which the officer or employee is an officer, agent, employee, or member, or in which the officer or employee owns a beneficial interest, except that an officer or employee of an institution of higher education or the Spokane intercollegiate research and technology institute may serve as an officer, agent, employee, or member, or on the board of directors, board of trustees, advisory board, or committee or review panel for any nonprofit institute, foundation, or fundraising entity; and may serve as a member of an advisory board, committee, or review panel for a governmental or other nonprofit entity.

(4) This section does not apply to a state officer or employee who is a member of a board, commission, or committee if the officer's or employee's beneficial interest in the person involved in the transaction is ten thousand dollars or less or is less than one percent of the value of the person involved in the transaction, whichever is less.

(5) A state officer or employee who is a member of a board, commission, or committee and whose beneficial interest in the person involved in the transaction exceeds ten thousand dollars or one percent of the value of the person involved in the transaction must:  (a) Disclose the interest; (b) recuse himself or herself from voting on the transaction; and (c) not influence or attempt to influence the vote of any other member of the board, commission, or committee.

                            --- END ---