Ethics

The Ohio Ethics Commission (OEC) recently weighed in on the application of the Ohio Ethics Law to public officials or employees participating in matters involving their domestic partners.

This month, the legal division is using the Sidebar discussion to tackle the “Question of the Month.” The question is: “Can a school district official or employee hire their family members?” Jennifer Hardin and John Price discuss Ohio’s law prohibiting nepotism, including who is covered by the law, what the law actually prohibits, and who is an official's family member.

Ohio’s Ethics Law generally prohibits a public official from using their influence to secure authorization of a public contract for the public official’s family. However, the Ohio Ethics Commission has held that a school board member can vote, discuss, deliberate, lobby or otherwise participate in the ratification or rejection of a negotiated collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that affects their family member, so long as the following criteria are met:  

Recently, we’ve received several calls on the OSBA legal hotline about the ability of a board member to serve in different capacities within the community. Being an effective board member requires a combination of skills and traits, and a commitment to the welfare of the educational community.

For 2024, the OSBA legal division has decided to bring back a popular blog feature: question of the month. We will be focusing on questions that apply to many school board members and come up frequently in phone calls and presentations.  

2024's first question of the month is: Can a school board member sell anything to the district? There are a couple of laws that apply to this question.  

In this Legal Ledger Sidebar, OSBA attorneys Jennifer and John discuss the Ohio Ethics Law restrictions on gifts, entertainment and other things of value. The conversation covers the key aspects of the laws as they apply to school board members and school employees. 

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This past Wednesday, Oct. 19, was Global Ethics Day, meaning this is an ideal time to think about rules governing the compatibility of public offices. These situations arise when public officials like school board members wish to serve in other public roles while on the school board. By nature, school board members are often civic-minded and community-oriented individuals involved in different community or service ventures.

Earlier this week, Auditor of State Keith Faber’s office announced that an Ohio grand jury had indicted a former school superintendent for numerous violations of law. Among the violations were 13 counts of having an unlawful interest in a public contract for securing contracts for a family member.