§ 2-177. Receipt of complaints.

(a)

All complaints against county officials shall be filed with the board of ethics, who may require that oral complaints, and complaints illegibly or informally drawn, be reduced to a memorandum of complaint in such form as may be prescribed by the county council or the board of ethics. Upon receipt of a complaint in proper form, the chair of the board of ethics shall forward a copy of the complaint to the county official or officials charged in the complaint within no more than seven calendar days.

(b)

All complaints shall be submitted and signed under oath, shall be legibly drawn and shall clearly address matters within the scope of this article.

(c)

Upon receipt of a complaint in proper form, the board shall review it to determine whether the complaint is unjustified, frivolous, patently unfounded or fails to state facts sufficient to invoke the disciplinary justification of the board of commissioners. The board of ethics is empowered to dismiss in writing complaints that it determines are unjustified or fail to state facts sufficient to invoke the disciplinary of the county commission; provided, however, that a rejection of such complaint by the board of ethics shall not deprive the complaining party of any action such party might otherwise have at law or the board of ethics is empowered to collect evidence and information concerning any complaint and add the findings and results of its investigations to the file containing such complaint.

(d)

Upon completion of its investigation of a complaint, the board of ethics is empowered to dismiss in writing those complaints which it determines are unjustified, frivolous, patently unfounded or fails to state facts sufficient to invoke the disciplinary justification of the board of commissioners; provided, however, that a rejection of such compliant by the board of ethics shall not deprive the complaining party of any action such part might have otherwise have at law or in equity against the city officials.

(e)

The board of ethics is empowered to conduct investigations, to take evidence, and to hold hearings to address the subject matter of a complaint.

(f)

The board of ethics is empowered to adopt forms for formal complaints, notices, and any other necessary or desirable documents within its jurisdiction where the board of commission has not prescribed such form.

(h)

To discourage the filing of ethics complaints solely for political purposes, complaints will not be accepted against a person seeking election as a county official, whether currently serving as a county official or not, from the date qualifying opens for the elected office at issue through the date the election results for that office are certified. The time for filing complaints will not run during this period. Properly filed complaints will be accepted and processed after the election results have been certified.

(h)

To discourage the filing of ethics complaints solely for political purposes, ethics complaints against a person seeking election as a county official, whether currently serving as a county official or not, which are filed between the date of qualifying for municipal office and the date of certification of the election results will be held and will not be processed until the election results for that office have been certified.

(Ord. No. 10-11, § 1, 10-18-2010)