A. Upon request of any official, the ethics officer shall render written advisory opinions concerning the applicability of BCC 3.92.030 and 3.92.040 to hypothetical circumstances and/or situations solely related to the persons making the request. The ethics officer will not render opinions on matters that are the purview of other government agencies such as the public disclosure commission or the King County prosecutor.

B. Upon request of any official, the ethics officer may also render written advisory opinions concerning the applicability of the code of ethics to hypothetical circumstances and/or situations related to a matter of city-wide interest or policy.

C. The ethics officer will endeavor to respond to requests for advisory opinions within 14 days of submission of the request, or more rapidly if the requester expresses urgency in the request.

D. An official’s conduct based in reasonable reliance on an advisory opinion rendered by the ethics officer shall not be found to violate this code of ethics, as long as all material facts have been fully, completely, and accurately presented in a written request for an advisory opinion, the ethics officer issues an advisory opinion that the described conduct would not violate the code of ethics, and the official’s conduct is consistent with the advisory opinion. The ethics officer reserves the right to 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. Advisory opinions will contain severability clauses indicating that, should portions of the opinion be found to be unenforceable or not within the ethics officer’s authority, the remainder of the opinion shall remain intact.

E. All officials subject to this chapter are strongly encouraged to seek advisory opinions from the ethics officer at the earliest possible opportunity whenever an official has reason to believe that his or her circumstances could present a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest or any other violation of this chapter.

F. Advisory opinions are subject to the attorney-client privilege. (Ord. 6110 § 2, 2013.)