Except when another penalty is specifically set forth in this Chapter or State or Federal law, the violation of the Code of Ethics shall be punishable as follows:
1. Any public official or employee of the City found by the Board of Ethics to have violated this Chapter shall forfeit to the City or City agency an amount equal to the economic benefit or gain realized by such public official or employee of the City, as determined by the Board of Ethics. This forfeiture, in addition to any order of the Board of Ethics requiring payment of any civil penalty, and/or legal costs, may be enforced by the City in a civil action in the nature of the recovery of a debt if the offender fails to pay the amount within the prescribed time, or, if there is none, within a reasonable amount of time.
2. In the case of elected officials and other public officials other than employees of the City, a violation of this Code of Ethics shall be considered misconduct subject to remedies as determined by the Board of Commissioners.
3. In addition to all other remedies which may be imposed under this Chapter, a finding by the Board of Ethics that an employee of the City is guilty of a violation of this Chapter shall be sufficient cause for disciplinary action including, but not limited to, removal, demotion, and/or suspension, as determined by the Board of Commissioners or City agency.
(Ord. BG94-52, 12/13/94; Ord. BG96-5, 2/20/96; Ord. BG2020-31, 10/20/2020; Ord. BG2021-6, 3/2/2021)
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* Editor’s Note: The paragraphs in Subchapter 25-14 were renumbered with the release of Supp. No. 21 using numerical references versus alpha characters to match the formatting used throughout the rest of the Chapter.