MUNICIPALITIES; ETHICS CODE; CONTRACTS;

MUNICIPALITIES; CODE OF ETHICS;

Court Cases; Connecticut laws/regulations;

You asked if municipalities can enact ordinances, modeled after a provision in the State Code of Ethics, prohibiting entities that make campaign contributions to elected municipal officials from doing business with the municipalities. The state code prohibits contributors to the state treasurer’s election campaign from doing business with the treasurer’s office. You also wanted to know if any bills have been filed or public hearings held regarding this issue.

The state Supreme Court has long held that municipalities have no inherent powers (see Old Colony Gardens, Inc. v. Stamford, 147 Conn. 60 (1959)). Thus, the only powers municipalities have appear to be those granted to them by the state constitution or state statutes.

Municipalities have the authority under state statutes to adopt a code of ethical conduct (CGS § 7-148 (c)(10)(B)). Unless otherwise provided by special act or charter, powers granted to a municipality by statute must be exercised by ordinance when the exercise of the power effectively (1) establishes rules or regulations of general municipal application that carry a fine or other penalty if violated or (2) creates a permanent local law of general municipal applicability (CGS § 7-148 (b)). Municipal codes of ethics appear to satisfy the ordinance requirement. And, in fact, municipalities that have adopted a code of ethical behavior have done so via ordinance.

Following the state model, municipalities may include in their codes of ethics a prohibition against contributors to municipal campaigns doing business with the municipality. If such a conflict of interest provision is modeled after state law rather than barring all contributors to municipal campaigns from doing business with the municipality, it would probably prohibit the contributors from doing business with the department, agency, or office that the recipient heads or over which he exercises some authority or control (e. g. , the ordinance might prohibit officials responsible for awarding municipal contracts from contracting with contributors to his election or re-election campaign).

The state code prohibits the state treasurer from paying or contracting with any investment services firm when a principal in the firm has made or solicited campaign contributions on behalf of any exploratory or candidate committee the treasurer establishes during her candidacy for office (CGS § 1-84(n)(2)).

In 1994, the legislature required the State Ethics Commission to draft a model code of ethics that municipalities could adopt if they desired. This code does not contain a prohibition like that in the state code and neither did a bill (sHB 6594) introduced this past session. sHB 6594 established a municipal code of ethics and mandated that municipalities without a code or with a less stringent code adopt it. The bill was favorably reported by the Government Administration and Election and Judiciary committees but died on the House calendar.

SN-E: ro