Harford County government has a new, stricter local ethics code that the county council approved Dec. 13; the revised version was mandated by the state.
The county largely followed the state template in rewriting its code, county attorney Rob McCord said. The original county code was enacted in the 1970s as a requirement of the county charter adopted in 1972, with changes made over the years.
"Most of it is about the same, but the provisions don't come in the same order anymore," he said. "There's not a lot of things that actually physically changed."
Some notable differences include changing the county limit for gifts from $50 to $20, moving the reporting deadline from July 1 to April 30 and requiring records to be retained for four years instead of three.
The code also has new provisions for enforcement of potential daily fines and higher fines for non-compliance, McCord said.
Besides adopting the state template, the code also "brought forward things from the county code that are a little more strict," he said.
The main reason for the new code is the state now requires local codes to be "at least equivalent" to the state code, instead of "substantially similar," as in the past.
"The language was changed for the purpose of conflict of interest and financial disclosure for elected officials," he said. "We have no choice."
The council passed six amendments with the new code, which included redefining various words and making slight changes such as putting five members on the county ethics board instead of three.
The code applies to all county elected officials, employees and appointees to boards and commissions of the county.
It requires that no more than three members of the ethics board shall be from the same political party.
Officials and employees may not take part in any matter in which the person or a relative (spouse, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, sibling or spouse) has an interest, except in the case of an administrative or ministerial duty that does not affect the issue's decision.
They also may not take part in a matter involving a business entity in which the person has a direct financial interest, is employed by the entity, has any arrangement concerning prospective employment or which is owned by a business entity in which the person has a direct financial interest.
Candidates must file statements by April 30 for the preceding year and an individual who leaves office for which a statement is required shall file a statement within 60 days of leaving office.
Aberdeen is the only municipality in Harford that also passed a new ethics code, in October.
Havre de Grace's administrative committee is still working on the code, administrative assistant Shyla Glassman said.
Bel Air's is expected to go before the board of town commissioners in January, administration director Joyce Oliver said.
"The state wanted to do a legal review before presenting it to the commissioners," she said.