POLICY NUMBER: B.160
POLICY TYPE: GOVERNANCE PROCESS
POLICY TITLE: BOARD MEMBERS’ CODE OF CONDUCT
The board commits itself and its members to ethical, professional, and lawful conduct, including proper use of authority and appropriate decorum when acting as board members.
Accordingly,
- Board members must represent unconflicted loyalty to the interests of the citizens of the district. This accountability supersedes any conflicting loyalty such as that to advocacy or interest groups and membership on other boards or staffs. This accountability supersedes the personal interest of any board member acting as an individual consumer of the organization's services.
- Board members must avoid any conflict of interest with respect to their fiduciary responsibility in accordance with Oregon statutes. Should a board member apply for employment by the college, the board member must resign.
- Board members may not attempt to exercise individual authority over the organization except as explicitly set forth in board policies.
- Board members' interaction with the president or with staff must recognize the lack of authority in any individual board member or group of board members except as noted above.
- Board members' interaction with the public, press, or other entities must recognize the same limitation and the similar inability of any board member or board members to speak for the board (except for the chairperson, as noted in B.150.2.C)
- Members will give no consequence or public voice to individual judgments of the president or staff performance, except as that performance is assessed against explicit board policies by the official process.
- As new issues come before the board, the board will first determine if a policy has been violated. If a policy has been violated, the board will specify monitoring to correct the violation. If no policy has been violated, the board may determine that clarification of an existing policy or creation of a new policy is necessary.
- Members will respect the confidentiality appropriate to issues of a sensitive nature.
ADOPTED: November 9, 1998
REVISED: January 13, 1999
REVISED: April 14, 1999
REVISED: February 11, 2004
REVISED: July 27, 2004
REVIEWED: May 14, 2008
