Ohio Code 102.031 – Conflicts of interest of member of general assembly
(A) As used in this section:
Terms Used In Ohio Code 102.031
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Employer: means any person who, directly or indirectly, engages an executive agency lobbyist or legislative agent. See Ohio Code 102.01
- Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Undertaking: includes a bond. See Ohio Code 1.02
(1) “Business associate” means a person with whom a member of the general assembly is conducting or undertaking a financial transaction.
(2) “Contribution” has the same meaning as in section 3517.01 of the Revised Code.
(3) “Employee” does not include a member of the general assembly whose nonlegislative position of employment does not involve the performance of or the authority to perform administrative or supervisory functions; or whose nonlegislative position of employment, if the member is a public employee, does not involve a substantial and material exercise of administrative discretion in the formulation of public policy, expenditure of public funds, enforcement of laws and rules of the state or a county or city, or execution of other public trusts.
(B) No member of the general assembly shall vote on any legislation that the member knows is then being actively advocated if the member is one of the following with respect to a legislative agent or employer that is then actively advocating on that legislation:
(1) An employee;
(2) A business associate;
(3) A person, other than an employee, who is hired under contract to perform certain services, and that position involves a substantial and material exercise of administrative discretion in the formulation of public policy.
(C) No member of the general assembly shall knowingly accept any of the following from a legislative agent or a person required to file a statement described in division (A)(2) of section 102.021 of the Revised Code:
(1) The payment of any expenses for travel or lodging except as otherwise authorized by division (H) of section 102.03 of the Revised Code;
(2) More than seventy-five dollars aggregated per calendar year as payment for meals and other food and beverages, other than for those meals and other food and beverages provided to the member at a meeting at which the member participates in a panel, seminar, or speaking engagement, at a meeting or convention of a national organization to which any state agency, including, but not limited to, any legislative agency or state institution of higher education as defined in section 3345.011 of the Revised Code, pays membership dues, or at a dinner, party, or function to which all members of the general assembly or all members of either house of the general assembly are invited;
(3) A gift of any amount in the form of cash or the equivalent of cash, or a gift of any other thing of value whose value exceeds seventy-five dollars. As used in division (C)(3) of this section, “gift” does not include any contribution or any gifts of meals and other food and beverages or the payment of expenses incurred for travel to destinations either inside or outside this state that is received by a member of the general assembly and that is incurred in connection with the member’s official duties.
(D) It is not a violation of division (C)(2) of this section if, within sixty days after receiving notice from a legislative agent that the legislative agent has provided a member of the general assembly with more than seventy-five dollars aggregated in a calendar year as payment for meals and other food and beverages, the member of the general assembly returns to that legislative agent the amount received that exceeds seventy-five dollars.
(E) The joint legislative ethics committee may impose a fine of not more than one thousand dollars upon a member of the general assembly who violates division (B) of this section.