POLICY 5-2.5 HIRING: NEPOTISM AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST
PROHIBITIONS
The Montgomery County School Board may not employ, and the division superintendent may not recommend for employment, any family member of the division superintendent or of a School Board member. This prohibition shall not be construed to prohibit the employment, promotion, or transfer within the school division of any person within a relationship described in the previous sentence when such person: (i) has been employed pursuant to a written contract with the School Board or employed as a substitute teacher or teacher’s aide by the School Board prior to the taking of office of any member of the School Board or division superintendent; (ii) has been employed pursuant to a written contract with the School Board or employed as a substitute teacher or teacher’s aide by the School Board prior to inception of such relationship; or (iii) was employed by the School Board at any time prior to June 10, 1994, and has been employed at any time as a teacher or any other employee of any Virginia school board prior to the taking of office of any member of such school board or division superintendent. A family member employed as a substitute teacher may not be given any greater employment than that obtained in the last full school year prior to the taking of office of the division superintendent or any School Board member.
The School Board may employ no immediate family member of any employee if
the immediate family member is to be employed in a direct supervisory and/or
administrative relationship either supervisory or subordinate to the
employee. It is not the practice of the Human Resources
Department to assign family members to the same organizational unit, although such assignment is not prohibited and may be made
if the assignment meets the needs of the organizational unitIn addition, generally The employment
and assignment of family members in the same organizational unit shall be
discouraged.the human resources department will not assign family
members to the same organizational unit. For the
purposes of this policy, an organizational unit is defined
as a department or a schoolHowever, if the human resources department is unable to identify qualified candidates that are not
family members to fill employment
openings, the human resources department retains the right to assign staff in the manner that
best meets the need of the organizational unit. In addition, the School Board and
the Superintendent, according to School Board policy, retain the right to
transfer or reassign family members to separate organizational units to meet
the school district’s
needs. In no circumstances shall any
employee be involved in any personnel matter involving a member of his or her
immediate family.
"Family
member," as used in this policy, is defined as father, mother, brother,
sister, spouse, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, or
brother-in-law. "Immediate family member," as used in this policy,
means (1) a spouse and (2) any other person residing in the same household as
the officer or employee, who is a dependent of the officer or employee or of
whom the officer or employee is a dependent.
No employee shall have a personal interest in a contract with the agency of which he/she is an officer or employee other than his/her own contract of employment.
No officer or employee shall:
a. solicit or accept money or other thing of value for services performed within the scope of the employee's or officer's official duties;
b. offer or accept any money or other thing of value for or in consideration of obtaining employment, appointment, or promotion of any person with any governmental or advisory agency;
c.
offer or accept any money or other thing of value for
or in consideration of the use of the employee's or officer's public position
to obtain a contract for any person or business with any governmental or
advisory agency;
d. use for the employee's or officer's own economic benefit or that of any other party confidential information which the employee or officer has acquired by reason of his/her public position and which is not available to the public;
e.
accept any monies, loan, gift, favor, service, or
business or professional opportunity that reasonably tends to influence the
officer or employee in the performance of his/her official duties (certain
political contributions excluded);
f. accept any business or professional opportunity when the officer or employee knows that there is a reasonable likelihood that the opportunity is being afforded him/her to influence her/him in the performance of official duties;
g. accept any honoria for any appearance, speech, or article in which the officer or employee provides expertise or opinions related to the performance of his/her official duties, or
h. accept a gift from a person who has interests that may be substantially affected by the performance of the officer's or employee's official duties under circumstances where the timing and nature of the gift would cause a reasonable person to question the officer's or employee's impartiality in the matter affecting the donor; or
i.
accept gifts from sources on a basis so frequent as to
raise an appearance of the use of public office for private gain.
Some exceptions to the general rules do exist. Any officer or employee should contact the Director of Human Resources to request assistance when there is a question about whether a conflict of interest exists. The law provides criminal penalties for known violations of the Conflict of Interests Act.
LEGAL REFERENCE: Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, §§ 2.2-3100, et seq.
Adopted: April 2004
Revised: March 2007