Lackawanna County Home Rule Charter Amendment: Stock Trades, Prediction Market Bets and Ethics Reporting

Official plain English statement

1.14-1403 Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics. A conflict of interest and code of ethics shall be adopted as part of the Administrative Code mandated by this Charter and shall prohibit the Exempt Service and County Employees from engaging in any individual stock trades or prediction market bets based on nonpublic information obtained in the course of their official County service. 1.14-1404 Annual Reporting. A. The Lackawanna County Solicitor shall produce to the County Board of Commissioners an annual report regarding all ethics complaints, including all necessary information and statistics. B. The annual report produced by the Solicitor shall also include the following: 1. All ethics complaints made against County, state and federal elected officials who represent citizens that live in the County to relevant regulatory bodies including all relevant information, findings, and conclusions. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require the disclosure of privileged information. 2. A summary of individual stock trades by volume made by federal and state elected officials who represent citizens that live in the County based on publicly available information. 3. Recommendations regarding changes to the Administrative Code and the Lackawanna County Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics to regulate emerging unethical practices or ones that are not sufficiently regulated. A YES vote means to amend the 2 sections of the Home Rule Charter as stated above, including the County to do a comprehensive annual report of publicly available stock trades made by federal and state elected officials who represent citizens that live in the County. A NO vote means to leave the Home Rule Charter as it currently exists.