I can only speak to my conduct.
I declared every conflict, real or perceived, both when I was appointed and when they occurred throughout my membership. It was only for two years that we were doing projects, because the full last year of my board work was involved with the special committee, and no funding was moving forward. I declared them all. The conflict policy was in place. My understanding is that it had been in place for years, so I was simply following the rules as they were laid out to me when I joined the board.