Board Operations
Board of Trustees Policy
Subject: Board of Trustees Conflict of Interest
Number: 2.8
Date: November 2019
Supersedes: April 2010
Purpose
The Board of Trustees of Montgomery County Community College is committed to the principles of integrity, good faith and fair dealing, and professional accountability in all its dealings on behalf of the College.
Accordingly, the purpose of this policy is to provide guidance to members of this Board with respect to any conflict of interest experienced by the totality of any outside interests, concerns and relationships held by any individual member, as required through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) Standard 2.
Responsibilities
The Board of Trustees is responsible for ensuring that the Board is educated on policies and standards concerning conflict of interest and guidelines for weighing the compelling benefit of an apparent conflict. Ultimately, the Board’s highest priority is protecting the institution’s integrity and reputation.
Policy
A conflict of interest may exist whenever the outside interests, concerns or relationships held by a Trustee and his or her immediate household members or dependent children, compromises, or appears to compromise, that member’s fiduciary duty to the College. Institutional policy on board member conflicts of interest should extend to the activities of board committees and should apply to all committee members, including those who are not board members.
In the course of doing College business, Board members must disclose to the Board as a whole, actual and potential conflicts of interest on the part of outside interests, concerns and relationships.
This disclosure of outside interests, concerns and relationships should be updated annually by each member of the Board of Trustees.
To facilitate Board members’ identification of such conflicts, the President will annually inform the Board of major institutional relationships and transactions, so as to maximize awareness of possible conflicts.
When a potential conflict of interest, previously disclosed, is subsequently relevant to a matter immediately before the Board, it is expected that the Board member bring it again to the attention of the Board as a whole.
The Board may consider the compelling benefit of involvement by the board member, subject to carefully defined conditions that assure both propriety and the appearance of propriety. The standard connotes that permissible conflict transactions should be rare and exceptional and that compelling benefit deliberations be transparent.
Procedure
Members of the Board of Trustees will disclose any potential conflict of interests through the completion and submission of a written questionnaire on an annual basis and updated more frequently if significant changes would impact Board deliberations.