Code of Ethics. First, an ethics law must contain a clear and comprehensive code of ethics that is understandable to lay persons without resort to lawyers. Bright line rules should be preferred over vague standards. So, too, exclusions should be contained not in the code of ethics but in a separate section. Thus, a county employee who reads and complies only with the ethics code and ignores the definitions and exclusions may refrain from doing a permitted act but will never inadvertently commit a violation.
Disclosure means disclosure to the public.
Disclosure limited to an ethics board is largely useless because no ethics board possesses the resources to investigate every disclosure statement but must instead depend upon interested private citizens, whistleblowers, and the media. Failure to disclose must result in stiff civil fines, or no one will disclose at all. Three basic kinds of disclosure exist. In applicant disclosure, an applicant or bidder before the county discloses the interest of county employees in the applicant or application, to the extent reasonably known. Annual disclosure usually consists of a form that certain higher level county employees fill out each year listing certain of their assets and liabilities.