Conflict of Interest Laws

Conflict of Interest Law (Ethics)


Per Chapter 28 of the Acts of 2009, commonly referred to as the ethics reform law, the Commonwealth imposes mandatory education and training requirements on public employers and public employees. The law authorizes the Commonwealth's State Ethics Commission to establish procedures to implement and ensure compliance with these requirements, and these implementation procedures are issued pursuant to that authority.


Ethics Requirements

The Commonwealth's requirements can be summarized as follows:
  1. Each year, every state, county, and municipal employee must be given a summary of the conflict of interest law prepared by the Ethics Commission.
  2. Every two years, every state, county, and municipal employee must complete an online training program prepared by the Ethics Commission.
  3. Every municipality must designate a liaison to the Ethics Commission.
  4. All records of compliance with these requirements must be retained for 6 years.
These requirements apply to all public employees, as defined by the conflict of interest law, except to the extent that an employing public agency exempts certain categories of employees from these requirements in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the State Ethics Commission.

Steps to Meeting Requirements

The City of Lowell has taken the following steps to meet these requirements:
  • The City Clerk has been designated as the liaison to the State Ethics Commission. The City has implemented a Learning Management System (LMS) which every municipal employee is required to log into in order to:
    • Review and sign off on the summary of the conflict of interest law
    • Complete the online training program prepared by the Ethics Commission
    • Sign off on an electronic certificate of completion 
  • The City may also choose to deliver / review the material to/with municipal employees directly, in order to ensure that everyone receives the summary, and completes the training as appropriate.

Training

​All City of Lowell public employees, as defined by the conflict of interest law are required to participate in Conflict of Interest Law (Ethics) training.