The Fair Political Practices Commission is launching a fourth investigation into the actions and potential conflicts arising from a Bay Area health district official. This time, the charge being evaluated is that the President of the Washington Township Health Care District, which has paid $1.2 million in fees to the Fremont Bank, is also the Chairman of the bank.
As described in a two-part series this week, Section 1090 not only prevents public officials from voting on issues where they have a financial benefit. For that reason, Michael Wallace abstained from the discussion in 2001 where the board chose to work with Fremont Bank. However, State law prohibits boards and commissions from agreeing to contracts where a member has a financial gain, regardless of whether or not the specific member participated in the vote.
The potential conflicts of interest came to light in a July report from The Bay Citizen, where it was revealed that millions of dollars had been spent in questionable transactions.
This is the fourth active investigation into members of health care districts.
Read the full article here.