Sec. 602.621. - Duties.

The Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight, through its executive officials, shall have authority to: (a) Encourage compliance with the spirit and letter of ethics laws, and provide advice and training to departments and agencies; (b) Develop policies, programs and strategies to deal with all ethics-related matters; (c) Develop training and education programs with assistance of the General Counsel and City training personnel; (d) Organize a Citywide Ethics Coordination Council with one representative each from the executive branch, the legislative branch, each constitutional officer and each independent agency, with the purpose of avoiding duplication of ethics resources, sharing best practices and training, evaluating risk areas and devising plans to eliminate any City fraud, waste or corruption; (e) Review periodically this Code and other applicable laws and regulations and recommend appropriate changes to this Code; (f) Administer a confidential "Hotline" for the discovery of government waste, fraud, and ethics violations; (g) Respond to requests for assistance from all public officers and employees subject to this Ethics Code; (h) Act as the executive officer of the Jacksonville Ethics Commission, responsible for its administration and operation; (i) Work with the human resources and procurement offices and other appropriate divisions to integrate ethics into procurement, hiring, retention and promotion policies of the executive branch of the City and to share these practices with the Ethics Coordination Council; (j) Lead, direct, and be responsible for the development of the Citywide ethics plan and report to be created by the Ethics Coordination Council; (k) Investigate, review and report on City issues, and past, present and proposed programs, activities, accounts, records, contracts and transactions all as related to the prevention and remediation of conflicts of interest, fraud, waste, and corruption; (l) Receive full and unrestricted access to the records of any and all officials and employees, contractors, including their subcontractors and lower tier subcontractors, of any office, agency, department, or part of the entire Consolidated Government and other parties doing business with any office, agency, department, or part of the entire Consolidated Government or receiving funds from any office, agency department, or part of the entire Consolidated Government relevant to investigations authorized by law. All elected and appointed City and County officials and employees, and contractors and other parties doing business with the City and/or receiving City funds shall fully cooperate with the Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight. (m) Where possible violations of any State, federal or local law are suspected, to notify the appropriate civil, criminal or administrative agencies, and assist those agencies as appropriate. In the case of a possible violation of a human resource rule, regulation or policy governing a City employee, the official shall also notify the City administrator and the head of the department for which the employee works, unless to do so would otherwise jeopardize an ongoing investigation. (n) Personnel within the office shall not interfere with any ongoing criminal investigation or prosecution of the State attorney or the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. When the State Attorney or the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida has explicitly notified the office in writing that the investigation is interfering with an ongoing criminal investigation or prosecution, then all investigative activities shall be suspended. (o) Respond to requests for assistance from all public officers subject to this Ethics Code. (Ord. 2011-197-E, § 1; Ord. 2020-103-E , § 1)