Member
Pablo Trujillo
District 1
Chairman
Michael E. Lewis
District 2
Vice Chairman
Evangeline Garrison
District 3
CODE OF ETHICS
The opportunity to serve the people of Harding County as a County Employee, whether appointed, elected, salary, or hourly, is a great honor that carries with it the responsibility to demonstrate the highest standards of personal conduct in order to promote and maintain public confidence and respect for County government. Every Employee must model integrity in all actions and practice good stewardship of the public trust.
Never can an employee’s personal, political or business relationships interfere with decisions that must always be made in the best interests of all, of the citizens of Harding County. An employee shall seek no favors and accept none. Personal aggrandizement and/or profit secured through confidential information or abuse of the public trust is dishonest and unethical.
Each employee must accept individual responsibility for ensuring that County government is conducted openly and in the best interests of all of the citizens of the County. An employee is expected to strive for excellence through continuous learning, development and understanding the operations of the County government. All decisions must be made on the basis of the best available data and on the basis of merit.
Meetings of the Board of County Commissioners will be conducted so as to allow the free and open exchange of ideas among the Commissioners and input from interested citizens on matters of concern to them. The Chair of the Board of County Commissioners shall ensure that discussion and debate are characterized by courtesy and civility.
The Board of County Commissioners has hired a Manager to free the Board from the burden of daily administration and personnel tasks, to ensure that decisions are data driven and made on the basis of merit, to provide professional advice and guidance to the Board and to ensure that the Board’s plans and priorities for County government are implemented. The Manager reports to and is responsible to the Board. Individual Commissioners must not shrink from their leadership responsibility by deferring decisions for which they are responsible to the Manager, but neither can they attempt to impose their individual priorities or interests on the Manager. The County Manager will ensure that all Harding County employees are following the Code of Ethics.