Delaware County Council Announces Ethics Reforms

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA — The new Delaware County Council announced its ethics regulations and details on its reforms.

On Jan. 22, the council announced its reforms and regulations, which the council hopes will make local government more open and accessible to residents and employees.

Proposed changes include scheduling ethics and conflict of interest trainings, banning acceptance of any gifts or meals, prohibiting County Council and County Department Directors from serving as paid political staff for any candidate or organization, and requiring disclosure and approval of any additional paid position or consulting work.

To ensure the County’s hiring process is transparent and easier, the council announced the county has hired a consultant to assist in the development of new Human Resources programs and policies.

As a first step, the county’s website has been expanded to add more detailed job descriptions on the personnel page and individual pages for higher level job openings.

Job applicants can now, for the first time, email their resume and application. Previously, applicants had to mail or hand deliver paper copies of any application. The new job openings page can be found here.

These new reforms follow the announcement of three other reforms during their first public meeting of the year, including:

• Changes to Council meetings to increase public participation in county government, such as moving meetings to the evening when working residents can attend, increasing the opportunity to offer public comment to both the beginning and end of the meetings, and broadcasting the meetings live for those who cannot attend.
• Set public office hours for each Council member to allow employees and residents to directly ask, and get answers to, important questions. Office hours for each Council member are posted on the County’s website here.
• A plan to have each Council member assigned to oversee and be accountable for the performance of individual county departments.

The council said it will work toward enacting broad ethics and government reforms for the entire County through a series of public hearings designed to examine best practices in other communities and adapting the best ideas for Delaware County.

Among the subjects to be addressed at these hearings will be proposals to develop policies that establish an independent Board of Ethics and Inspector General, eliminate pay-to-play and self-dealing, institute a complete gift ban for county employees and increase public reporting of what government is doing and why.

The first Ethics and Reform public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 6, at 6 p.m. in the County Council Public Meeting Room, 201 W. Front St. in Media.

Additional Ethics and Reform public hearings will be announced later.