HCPSS MPIA Request #2018-412

Requested Information
Questions related to HCPSS ethics panel:
1) I would like to know who are sitting on the HCPSS ethics panel, what are the term and each member's background. For this purpose, I would ask HCPSS put those information online and share it publicly. Right now, I could not find it HCPSS website.
2) I would like to know during the last five years, how many investigations the ethics panel has looked into for both BOE members and senior school staff and what are the outcomes of those investigations.
Status
Complete
Response Notes

Responsive to this request, the following individuals are currently serving on the HCPSS Ethics Panel:

  • Charlotte Hardnett, term expires June 30, 2018
  • Bill Jackson, term expires April 10, 2023
  • Vic Gladstone, term expires April 10, 2023
  • Marguerite Alexander, term expires April 10, 2023

Under MPIA GP § 4-311 individual personnel records, including applications, are exempt from disclosure. This includes, as advised in the Fourteenth Edition of the Maryland Public Information Act Manual created by Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General, “information submitted by individuals seeking to serve on agency advisory committees.” As such, we are denying your request for each member’s background that would have been submitted as part of their application to the Ethics Panel.

Additionally, from a review of historical Ethics Panel considerations, there have been nine complaints related to senior level staff and/or Board of Education members. As each investigation is related to individual personnel matters, we are denying release of specific outcomes under MPIA GP § 4-311.

*Some request language is summarized to include the requester's specific document requests and legally protected information (such as personally identifiable information of a student) or personal, defamatory and malicious content removed at the discretion of the school system.

**Responses containing legally protected information available only to the person of interest are omitted from the above report.

***Howard County Public Schools reserves the right to remove erroneous or outdated documents from this site.