City Council May Ban Cash Gifts for City Employees

The bill, supported by Philadelphia City Council president Darrell L. Clarke, would also cap total gift value at $99.

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Philadelphia City Council President Darrell L. Clarke and City Councilman Bill Green are pushing a bill that would ban cash gifts to city employees and officials and cap the total value of gifts at $99 a year. City employees and officials and councilpeople can currently receive cash gifts, because of course they can. (In reality, the City Code is vague on the issue.)

The Inquirer‘s Claudia Vargas calls the discussion over the ban on gifts “heated”; previously, the city’s Ethics Board had said cash gifts could not be completely banned.

Some excerpts of the bill introduced Thursday: “No member of Council or other City officer or employee, shall solicit, accept or receive . . . gifts worth more than $99 in the aggregate per calendar year or any gifts of money.”

The bill would also explicitly allows gifts of lodging, admission to “major life event[s]” and free admission to political events—as long as they are not solicited.

[Philadelphia Inquirer]