(a) The municipal technical advisory service (MTAS) for municipalities, the county technical assistance service (CTAS) for counties, and the Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA) for school districts, in order to provide guidance and direction, shall disseminate models of ethical standards for officials and employees of those entities. The models shall be filed with the commission. Any municipality, county or school district that adopts the ethical standards for officials and employees of local government or school districts promulgated by MTAS, CTAS or TSBA is not required to file the policy with the commission but shall notify the commission in writing that the policy promulgated by MTAS, CTAS or TSBA was adopted and the date the action was taken.

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 8-17-105

  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • board: means the board provided for in part 3 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
  • Commission: means the Tennessee ethics commission. See Tennessee Code 8-17-102
  • County: means a county, metropolitan or consolidated government, inclusive of any boards, commissions, authorities, corporations or other instrumentalities appointed or created by the county or an official of the county. See Tennessee Code 8-17-102
  • Ethical standards: includes rules and regulations regarding limits on, and/or reasonable and systematic disclosure of, gifts or other things of value received by officials and employees that impact or appear to impact their discretion, and shall include rules and regulations regarding reasonable and systematic disclosure by officials and employees of their personal interests that impact or appear to impact their discretion. See Tennessee Code 8-17-102
  • Municipality: means an incorporated city or town, inclusive of any boards, commissions, authorities, corporations or other instrumentalities appointed or created by the municipality. See Tennessee Code 8-17-102
  • Officials and employees: means and includes any official, whether elected or appointed, officer, employee or servant, or any member of any board, agency, commission, authority or corporation, whether compensated or not, or any officer, employee or servant thereof, of a county or municipality. See Tennessee Code 8-17-102
  • Service: means service as a general employee, a teacher, a state police officer, a wildlife officer, a firefighter, a police officer, a state judge, a county judge, an attorney general, a commissioner or a county official which is paid for by an employer, and also includes service for which a former member of the general assembly is entitled to under former §. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
(b)

(1) In order to provide guidance and direction to water, wastewater, and gas authorities created by a private act or under the general law and to utility districts, the Tennessee Association of Utility Districts (TAUD) shall prepare a model of ethical standards for officials and employees of water, wastewater, and gas authorities created by private act or under the general law and of utility districts. The model must be submitted to the Tennessee board of utility regulation for its review and approval pursuant to § 7-82-702(a)(6). The board shall approve by order the TAUD model of ethical standards before the model is adopted by a water, wastewater, or gas authority created by a private act or under the general law or by a utility district. After the board approves the TAUD model, the TAUD model must be filed with the commission.
(2) The governing body of a water, wastewater, or gas authority created by a private act or under the general law, or of a utility district, that adopts ethical standards for its officials and employees shall either adopt the TAUD model of ethical standards approved by the board or adopt ethical standards that are more stringent than the TAUD model. If a water, wastewater, or gas authority created by a private act or under the general law, or a utility district, adopts ethical standards that are different from and more stringent than the TAUD model, then the more stringent ethical standards must be submitted to the board, which shall make a finding by order that the ethical standards adopted are more stringent than the TAUD model.
(3) [Deleted by 2023 amendment.]
(4) [Deleted by 2023 amendment.]