(1) Upon request of any city elected official, city officer, or department head, the board of ethics must render written advisory opinions concerning the applicability of this chapter to either hypothetical circumstances, policies or situations of citywide interest, or circumstances solely related to the person making the request.

(2) All advisory opinions issued by the board of ethics must be maintained for public view on the city’s website.

(3) The board of ethics may reconsider the questions and issues raised in an advisory opinion and, where the public interest requires, rescind, modify, or terminate the opinion, but a modified or terminated advisory opinion will not form the basis of a retroactive enforcement action against the original requestor.

(4) The board of ethics must endeavor to respond to requests for advisory opinions within 45 days of submission of the request, or more rapidly if the requester expresses urgency in the request.

(5) The board of ethics may not render opinions on matters that are the purview of other government agencies or officials (e.g., the public disclosure commission).

(6) A person’s conduct based in reasonable reliance on an advisory opinion rendered by the board of ethics may not be found to violate this code of ethics, as long as all material facts have been fully, completely, accurately presented in a written request for an advisory opinion, the board of ethics issues an advisory opinion that the described conduct would not violate the code of ethics, and the person’s conduct is consistent with the advisory opinion. (Ord. 1514 § 1 (Exh. A), 2023).