Sec. 602.622 - Department/Independent Agency Ethics Officers.

(a) The Mayor, the Council President, each constitutional officer, and each executive director of the independent agencies of the City shall designate one of their employees as an "Ethics Officer." Each Ethics Officer's duties are in addition to his or her principal operational role unless there is an approved budget for a separate position dealing exclusively with ethics and oversight functions. Specific responsibilities assigned to these Ethics Officers include, but are not limited to the following: (1) Conduct periodic meetings with senior management, boards and employee groups to assess risk areas and to provide advice on ethics issues and to work to instill an ethical culture in their agency; (2) Assist their department head or senior management in the development of an overall internal ethics plan; (3) Participate in a Citywide Ethics Coordination Council, which shall identify risks, recommend programs to implement national best practices to combat fraud, waste and corruption, and provide department and agency reports to be included in the Citywide ethics. (4) Assist in the receipt of ethics, fraud, waste, and corruption complaints from employees and the general public, and to assure that such complaints and information are directed to an appropriate authority, in a manner that best protects the complaining parties. When an Ethics Officer is in doubt about the relief available within a chain of command, or the consequences of reporting within the chain of command, the Ethics Officer shall have a duty to report complaints to the Director of the Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight. (b) In addition to those Ethics Officers set forth in subsection (a) above, there may be appointed within the executive branch additional department ethics officers (DEOs) to assist the Ethics Officer in the duties required by this Section at the department or division level. These duties shall be in addition to the principal operational role of the department ethics officer. (Ord. 2011-197-E, § 1)