A.Â
The public judges its government by the way public
employees conduct themselves in the posts to which they are elected
or appointed.
B.Â
The people have a right to expect that every public
employee will conduct himself in a manner that will tend to preserve
public confidence in and respect for the government he represents.
C.Â
Such confidence and respect can best be promoted if
every public employee, whether paid or unpaid and whether elected
or appointed, will uniformly:
D.Â
To help public officials and employees achieve these
goals is one of the objectives of the Code of Ethics.
E.Â
The other objective is based on the proposition that
no man can serve two masters, nor should he attempt to do so. Therefore,
this Code of Ethics proposes to relieve him of the impossible task
of judging himself. This code places judgment in the hands of the
governing body, which will review the facts and measure the facts
by the yardstick of public morality established by this code.
The terms used in this Code of Ethics are hereby
defined as follows:
Any person elected or appointed to or employed or retained
by any public office or public body of the municipality, whether paid
or unpaid and whether part-time or full-time.
Any interest which shall yield, directly or indirectly, a
monetary or other material benefit (other than the duly authorized
salary or compensation for this services to the Borough) to the employee
or to any person employing or retaining the services of the employee.
Any interest arising from blood or marriage relationships
or from close business or political associations, whether or not any
financial interest is involved.
Any agency, board, body, commission, committee, department
or office of the Borough.
No employee shall grant or make available to
any person any consideration, treatment, advantage or favor beyond
that which it is the general practice to grant or make available to
the public at large.
No employee shall request, use or permit the
use of any publicly owned or publicly supported property, vehicle,
equipment, labor or service for the personal convenience or the private
advantage of himself or any other person. This rule shall not be deemed
to prohibit an employee from requesting, using or permitting the use
of such publicly owned or publicly supported property, vehicle equipment,
material, labor or service which it is the general practice to make
available to the public at large or which is provided as a matter
of stated public policy for the use of employees in the conduct of
official business.
No employee, either on his own behalf or on
behalf of any other person, shall, unless otherwise permitted by law,
have any financial or personal interest in any business or transaction
with any public body in the Borough.
Whenever the performance of his official duties
shall require any employee to take action on any matter involving
his financial or personal interest, he shall publicly disclose the
nature and extent of such interest and disqualify himself from participating
in the deliberation as well as in the voting, unless otherwise permitted
by law so to act, as stated in an opinion of the Borough Attorney.
No employee shall engage in private employment
with or render services for any private person who has business transactions
with any public body of the Borough unless he shall first make public
disclosure of the nature and extent of such employment or services.
No employee shall appear on behalf of any private
person, other than himself, before any public body in the Borough.
A.Â
No employee shall, without prior formal authorization
of the governing body having jurisdiction, disclose any confidential
information concerning any employee or any other person or any property
or governmental affairs of the Borough.
B.Â
Whether or not it shall involve disclosure, no employee
shall use or permit the use of any such confidential information to
advance the financial or personal interest of himself or any other
person.
In the event that the governing body shall,
after due and proper hearing (public or private), make its determination
that the conduct of any employee was improper, it may, based upon
written findings, conclusions and determinations, censure, suspend
or remove the employee from office.
