(a) After receiving a written request, the Commission may grant to a public employee or a class of public employees a waiver of the prohibitions of this Chapter and Sections 11B-51 and 11B-52(a) if it finds that:
(1) the best interests of the County would be served by granting the waiver;
(2) the importance to the County of a public employee or class of employees performing official duties outweighs the actual or potential harm of any conflict of interest; and
(3) granting the waiver will not give a public employee or class of employees an unfair economic advantage over other public employees or members of the public.
(b) After receiving a written request, the Commission may waive the prohibitions of subsection 19A-12(b) if it finds that:
(1) the waiver is needed to ensure that competent services to the County are timely and available;
(2) failing to grant the waiver may reduce the ability of the County to hire or retain highly qualified public employees; or
(3) the proposed employment is not likely to create an actual conflict of interest.
(c) After receiving a written request, the Commission may waive the prohibitions of Section 19A-13(b) if it finds that:
(1) failing to grant the waiver may reduce the ability of the County to hire or retain highly qualified public employees; or
(2) the proposed employment is not likely to create an actual conflict of interest.
(d) The Commission may waive the prohibitions of Sections 19A-12 or 19A-13 without making the findings required in subsection (b) or (c) if an employer certifies, and the Commission agrees, that releasing pertinent facts about the proposed other employment is not in the interest of effective law enforcement or the national security of the United States.
(e) The Commission may impose appropriate conditions to fulfill the purposes of this Chapter when it grants a waiver.
(f) Each waiver request must:
(1) be in writing;
(2) be signed under oath by the public employee who applies for the waiver;
(3) disclose all material facts;
(4) show how the employee meets the applicable waiver standard, and
(5) include a statement from the public employee’s agency head (or the Chief Administrative Officer if the employee is not supervised by an agency head) indicating whether the agency head concurs with the waiver request.
(g) The Commission must disclose to the public any waiver that it grants and, on request of any person, must disclose the underlying waiver request and any statement filed under subsection (f)(5) from the employee’s agency head or the Chief Administrative Officer. If the Commission denies a request for a waiver, the Commission may publish its response as an advisory opinion under Section 19A-7(b). But the identity of any public employee who applies for a waiver must be kept confidential until the waiver is granted. The Commission may reveal the identity of any public employee who applies for a waiver that is not granted if:
(1) the public employee authorizes public disclosure; or
(2) the Commission has reasonable cause to believe that the public employee has engaged in the conduct for which the waiver was sought.
(h) After giving the public employee notice and an opportunity to respond, the Commission may revoke any waiver if it finds that the public employee who applied for the waiver did not disclose a material fact in the waiver request.
(i) The Commission must include the pertinent facts in each waiver.
(j) The Commission must promptly notify the State Ethics Commission, the Chief Administrative Officer, and the Council when it waives any prohibition of this Chapter for any class of public employees. (1990 L.M.C., ch. 21, § 1; 1997 L.M.C., ch. 37, § 1; 2010 L.M.C., ch. 5, § 1; 2016 L.M.C., ch. 2, § 1.)
Editor’s note-The above section is cited in FOP, Montgomery County Lodge No. 35 v. Mehrling, 343 Md. 155, 680 A.2d 1052 (1996).