Opinions

Any City employee or official may request formal guidance from the Ethics Board in the form of any advisory opinion. The advisory opinion must apply the Ethics Law to the specific circumstances described in the request.

The Ethics Law requires the Ethics Board to publish advisory opinions after deleting any information that could identify the person subject to the opinion.

All City employees and officials may rely on advisory opinions, so long as they:

  • are applicable to their circumstances, and
  • they have not been overruled by a later opinion or amendment to the Ethics Law or its Regulations.

To review advisory opinions published from 2014 onward, please use the database below. Contact Ethics Board staff to review advisory opinions not available online.

Advisory Opinions 

Fair Election Fund

  • Can members of the new Fair Election Fund Commissions make monetary or in-kind donations to campaigns that receive FEF funds?

The Ethics Board was called on to carefully balance FEF Commissioners’ protected political speech protections under the First Amendment with the Ethics Law’s prohibitions against conflicts of interest.

Result: FEF Commissioners may exercise their First Amendment rights to make monetary and in-kind donations to qualifying campaigns. However, active, for-pay employment by a campaign receiving FEF funds creates a conflict of interest that is irreconcilable with the provisions of Art. 8!

  • Restrictions on Secondary Employment

Ethics Opinion 24-001 (February 29, 2024) on Fair Election Fund (FEF) commissioners’ ability to make political contributions to campaigns who receive funds from the FEF [link to document]

This opinion clarifies that FEF commissioners may make campaign contributions and volunteer for campaigns/candidates receiving FEF funds, but that compensated employments by such campaigns constitutes an impermissible conflict of interest.

Click here to view Public Opinion 24-001

  • Conflicts of Interest

Ethics Opinion 24-001 (February 29, 2024) on Fair Election Fund (FEF) commissioners’ ability to be employed on campaigns who receive funds from the FEF [link to document]

The Ethics Board determined that compensated employment by and through a campaign that receives FEF funds creates an impermissible Conflict of Interest for FEF commissioners.

Click here to view Public Opinion 24-001

Lobbying

This opinion clarifies activities that constitute “legislative lobbying” through the lens of an ethics complaint.
 

Restrictions on Secondary Employment/Board Membership 

The Ethics Board issued this opinion after determining that a public servant's membership on an entity's governing board did not qualify as service on the City's behalf. This opinion clarifies the relevant exception to the Ethics Law's secondary employment restrictions for service on the City's behalf.
 
The Board provides guidance on the Ethics Law's provisions limiting a City public servant's secondary employment options, defining the term, "employment," and providing scenarios that raise an impermissible conflict of interest.
 

Restrictions on Employment After City Service

The Ethics Law's post-employment restriction does not bar an employee's proposed employment with another employer. 
 
The Board addresses the following: 1) the scope of the Ethics Law's post-employment restriction; 2) what it means to assist or represent a party “other than the City”; and 3) whether the restriction terminates after a period of time.
 

Gifts

A City public servant, who was offered the gift of free travel and lodging from a controlled donor, did not qualify for exemption to the Ethics Law's gift restrictions, including its exemption for the gift of free travel and lodging from a controlled donor in exchange for the public servant's participation in a speaking engagement or on a panel.
 
This opinion applies the Ethics Law’s gift restrictions and exemptions to a situation in which an elected official is offered a free ticket or admission to a sporting event.
 
A City official may not solicit or accept a gift of below-market-rate rent from the property’s owner who qualifies as a “controlled donor."
 
The mere existence of an agreement with an entity does not allow the City to request anything that it wants from that entity without running afoul of the Ethics Law's restrictions on gift solicitation.
 
The Board clarifies the Ethics Law's restrictions on gift solicitation and acceptance, providing that gifts intended for charitable purposes or public benefit are not exempt from the gift provisions and that recusal does not exempt a public servant from the gift provisions.
 
Cohabitating partners with certain degrees of economic interdependence, such as shared financial accounts, living expenses, and property ownership, combined with the expectation that those arrangements will continue indefinitely, should be treated as a single economic unit for purposes of the Ethics Law.
 
The Board provides protocols for the acquisition and distribution of property, clarifying that the solicitation and acceptance of additional property than what is stipulated for in original contracts violates the Ethics Law's gift provisions. 
 
The Board outlines three conditions for City sponsorship agreements: broad solicitation, vetting of sponsors, and approval by the Board of Estimates. When such conditions are met, a sponsorship agreement is treated the same as a contract and does not implicate the Ethics Law's gift provisions.
 

Conflicts of Interest - Recusal

A City Councilmember should refrain from participating in any legislative matter to which an entity that employs the Councilmember part time is a party.
 
The Ethics Law does not require members of the Board of Estimates ("BOE") to abstain from voting on all matters concerning a unit of City government under their control, although the BOE may issue additional voting abstention policies to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
 
Cohabitating partners with certain degrees of economic interdependence, such as shared financial accounts, living expenses, and property ownership, combined with the expectation that those arrangements will continue indefinitely, should be treated as a single economic unit for purposes of the Ethics Law.
 
In response to various scenarios posed by a public servant, the Board determines which matters require recusal.
 
The definition of "business entity" for the purpose of the Ethics Law's recusal requirements encompasses the entirety of a conglomeration considered a single legal entity, such as a university or the Baltimore City Public School System, and is not limited to a particular site, division, or other sub-unit unless the sub-unit has a separate legal existence.
 

Prestige of Office

The Board provides recommendations for City agencies' official policies on letters of reference, in light of the Board's finding that a City employee used his City position for another's private gain in providing a letter of reference for a contractor to secure future work.