Substitute Senate Bill No. 330
Public Act No. 10-101
AN ACT CONCERNING STUDENT EMPLOYEES, THE STATE ETHICS CODE AND WORKFORCE COMPETITIVENESS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Subsection (e) of section 1-79 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2010):
(e) "Gift" means anything of value, which is directly and personally received, unless consideration of equal or greater value is given in return. "Gift" shall not include:
(1) A political contribution otherwise reported as required by law or a donation or payment as described in subdivision (9) or (10) of subsection (b) of section 9-601a;
(2) Services provided by persons volunteering their time, if provided to aid or promote the success or defeat of any political party, any candidate or candidates for public office or the position of convention delegate or town committee member or any referendum question;
(3) A commercially reasonable loan made on terms not more favorable than loans made in the ordinary course of business;
(4) A gift received from (A) an individual's spouse, fiance or fiancee, (B) the parent, brother or sister of such spouse or such individual, or (C) the child of such individual or the spouse of such child;
(5) Goods or services (A) which are provided to a state agency or quasi-public agency (i) for use on state or quasi-public agency property, or (ii) that support an event, and (B) which facilitate state or quasi-public agency action or functions. As used in this subdivision, "state property" means (i) property owned by the state or a quasi-public agency, or (ii) property leased to a state agency or quasi-public agency;
(6) A certificate, plaque or other ceremonial award costing less than one hundred dollars;
(7) A rebate, discount or promotional item available to the general public;
(8) Printed or recorded informational material germane to state action or functions;
(9) Food or beverage or both, costing less than fifty dollars in the aggregate per recipient in a calendar year, and consumed on an occasion or occasions at which the person paying, directly or indirectly, for the food or beverage, or his representative, is in attendance;
(10) Food or beverage or both, costing less than fifty dollars per person and consumed at a publicly noticed legislative reception to which all members of the General Assembly are invited and which is hosted not more than once in any calendar year by a lobbyist or business organization. For the purposes of such limit, (A) a reception hosted by a lobbyist who is an individual shall be deemed to have also been hosted by the business organization which he owns or is employed by, and (B) a reception hosted by a business organization shall be deemed to have also been hosted by all owners and employees of the business organization who are lobbyists. In making the calculation for the purposes of such fifty-dollar limit, the donor shall divide the amount spent on food and beverage by the number of persons whom the donor reasonably expects to attend the reception;
(11) Food or beverage or both, costing less than fifty dollars per person and consumed at a publicly noticed reception to which all members of the General Assembly from a region of the state are invited and which is hosted not more than once in any calendar year by a lobbyist or business organization. For the purposes of such limit, (A) a reception hosted by a lobbyist who is an individual shall be deemed to have also been hosted by the business organization which he owns or is employed by, and (B) a reception hosted by a business organization shall be deemed to have also been hosted by all owners and employees of the business organization who are lobbyists. In making the calculation for the purposes of such fifty-dollar limit, the donor shall divide the amount spent on food and beverage by the number of persons whom the donor reasonably expects to attend the reception. As used in this subdivision, "region of the state" means the established geographic service area of the organization hosting the reception;
(12) A gift, including, but not limited to, food or beverage or both, provided by an individual for the celebration of a major life event, provided any such gift provided by an individual who is not a member of the family of the recipient shall not exceed one thousand dollars in value;
(13) Gifts costing less than one hundred dollars in the aggregate or food or beverage provided at a hospitality suite at a meeting or conference of an interstate legislative association, by a person who is not a registrant or is not doing business with the state of Connecticut;
(14) Admission to a charitable or civic event, including food and beverage provided at such event, but excluding lodging or travel expenses, at which a public official or state employee participates in his official capacity, provided such admission is provided by the primary sponsoring entity;
(15) Anything of value provided by an employer of (A) a public official, (B) a state employee, or (C) a spouse of a public official or state employee, to such official, employee or spouse, provided such benefits are customarily and ordinarily provided to others in similar circumstances;
(16) Anything having a value of not more than ten dollars, provided the aggregate value of all things provided by a donor to a recipient under this subdivision in any calendar year shall not exceed fifty dollars; [or]
(17) Training that is provided by a vendor for a product purchased by a state or quasi-public agency which is offered to all customers of such vendor; or
(18) Travel expenses, lodging, food, beverage and other benefits customarily provided by a prospective employer, when provided to a student at a public institution of higher education whose employment is derived from such student's status as a student at such institution, in connection with bona fide employment discussions.
Sec. 2. Subsection (h) of section 1-84b of the 2010 supplement to the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2010):
(h) The provisions of subsections (a), (b) and (f) of this section shall not apply to any employee of a quasi-public agency who leaves such agency before July 1, 1989. The provisions of subsections (b) and (f) of this section shall not apply to a former state employee of a public institution of higher education whose employment was derived from such employee's status as a student at such institution.
Sec. 3. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2010) (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 1-84, 1-84a, 1-85 and 1-86 of the general statutes, a state employee of a public institution of higher education whose employment is derived from such employee's status as a student at such institution shall not be subject to the provisions of said sections, if (1) such institution has adopted written policies and procedures to regulate student conduct concerning conflicts of interest relating to student state employment, and (2) such policies and procedures have been approved by the Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board in accordance with subsection (b) of this section.
(b) Each public institution of higher education shall submit a written copy of its policies and procedures concerning standards of student conduct, to the Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board for approval. Such policies and procedures shall be submitted triennially, except that, in the event there is a significant revision of such standards of student conduct, the public institution of higher education shall submit such revision to the board not later than thirty days after adopting such revision.
Approved June 2, 2010