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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-10-10 Board of Ethics Minutes MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ETHICS BOZEMAN, MONTANA February 10, 2010 Please Note: The audio recording of this meeting is available. These minutes are not word for word and should be considered in addition to the audio of the meeting. The Board of Ethics of the City of Bozeman met in the City Commission room, City Hall at 121 North Rouse on Wednesday, February 10, 2010. Present were Board members Melissa Frost, Rodger McCormick and Stephen Schultz, as well as City Attorney Greg Sullivan and Deputy City Clerk Aimee Kissel. Also present was Paul Lachapelle with the Montana State University-Extension, Local Government Center and guest Diane Dorgan. A. Meeting Called to Order Chairperson Melissa Frost called the meeting to order at 6:08 p.m. B. Public Comment Melissa Frost opened public comment. Diane Dorgan, Public Comment Ms. Dorgan a student in the Masters of Public Administration program at Montana State University explained that she is completing her Masters this May. Her professional paper emphasizes what is considered best ethical practices in a local government environment. She felt the Board was a very useful way of investigating this concept. She would like to look at how the Board interacts and what board members value and feel their role is as far as advancing an agenda of good ethics practices. She’ll also look at the handbook, etc. and how all of this comes together for the benefit of the community. Mel Frost Ms. Frost asked the Board whether they would like to entertain questions from Ms. Dorgan now; and they replied yes. Diane Dorgan, Public Comment Ms. Dorgan explained she will have a specific set of questions she will address with each of you in the future. Her main question now would be what do Board members define as a best ethics practice or your understanding based on this process so far? Stephen Schultz Mr. Schultz explained he feels their vision is well defined by what the City has chartered us to do. We have to be careful to interpret that the best we can. Much of our conversations have been centered on that. We also went out to look at what other municipalities are doing or have written for comparison. Diane Dorgan, Public Comment Ms. Dorgan said that because this Board is new, she is looking at comparing Bozeman with other similar municipalities as well. Greg Sullivan Mr. Sullivan said an important point is to make sure the City Ethics Codes are consistent with State law. We can be more stringent, but need to be consistent and make sure it does not conflict in a way that would cause a problem. Mel Frost Ms. Frost explained that they have spent a lot of time going through the Code of Ethics line by line and are still working on that. Paul Lachapelle with the local government center has informed us of a few items that are in conflict with State Code. Discussion continued between Ms. Dorgan and Board members regarding what the Board hope to accomplish in its primary goals and what the Board would like the community to view as the ethical culture. This included the history of the ethics code in Bozeman and the concept of public trust and transparency. Public comment closed. Seeing no further public comment, Mel Frost closed public comment. C. Approval of Minutes from October 28, 2009, November 18, 2009 and December 10, 2009. Motion and Vote to approve the minutes from October 28, 2009, November 18, 2009 and December 10, 2009 as edited by Ms. Frost prior to the meeting. It was moved by Rodger McCormick, seconded by Stephen Schultz to approve the minutes from October 28, 2009, November 18, 2009 and December 10, 2009 as edited by Ms. Frost prior to the meeting. Those voting Aye being Rodger McCormick, Stephen Schultz and Mel Frost. Those voting No being none. The motion passed 3-0. D. Disclosure of information or comments received. None. E. Discussion and/or decisions regarding draft of the ethics handbook. Report from Paul Lachapelle and Melissa Frost. Paul Lachapelle Mr. Lachapelle said he met with Ms. Frost regarding the handbook outline. He spoke regarding looking at other ethics materials from other municipalities. He also looked at the Ordinance and made an outline. He would like to sit down with Mr. Sullivan in March to work on content. The Board discussed schedules and deadline dates. They then spoke about the need to provide background regarding what led to the handbook, the board, etc. to the Commission when this comes before them for approval. July 22nd is the deadline the Board would like to use as a target finish date for the handbook to be brought forward to the Commission. Paul Lachapelle Mr. Lachapelle asked for critical comments by February 25th prior to meeting with Mr. Sullivan. The board provided comments regarding the handbook outline for Mr. Lachapelle’s consideration. These included formatting details, location of items within the handbook, comments regarding the way the section titles are written and title wording issues. Please see notes on the draft outline or the audio for details. A discussion took place regarding the role of the Board of Ethics in providing advice and the boundaries between public meeting requirements and the right to privacy as it relates to a complaint or comments from the public. Greg Sullivan Mr. Sullivan explained that if someone came to a Board of Ethics meeting and said they wanted to file a complaint about a specific person the Chair of the Board would recognize that there may be individual privacy interests at stake and the Chair can make a finding whether the individual privacy outweighs the merits of public disclosure. If so, the meeting would be closed to the public with a separate closed recording taking place. The person can file a formal complaint at that time, but the board members would refrain from discussing or responding to the complaint at that time. Board members asked whether the Ethics City phone number was in place yet. Staff will look into this. Greg Sullivan Mr. Sullivan said that Commissioner Carson Taylor suggested a mock hearing take place to help the Board of Ethics members learn how to properly handle complaints. This will be scheduled sometime in the future. Further discussion took place regarding the role of the Board in providing advice versus providing access to advice. A discussion took place regarding how the Board should be a neutral body not an extension of government. For this reason, a Commission liaison would not be appropriate. Further discussion took place regarding the section of the handbook dealing with seeking advice, including what departments / staff should be listed under this section. This also included further discussion about the role of the Board and which ethics matters would be handled by the board versus department heads, human resources, attorney’s office, etc. Discussion took place regarding the intended audience for the ethics handbook. The audience is employees, board members, elected officials and the public. The Board further discussed how the questions should be written on the section titles with emphasis placed on making the questions pertain to the intended reader. The Board discussed having hyperlinks available throughout the document for further information, the actual codes, etc. The hyperlinks should lead to PDF’s or web pages, not to Laserfiche pages. Discussion took place regarding various penalties for violating the code. F. Discussion and/or decisions regarding ethics web-page on city web-site. Report from Stephen Schultz. No report at this time. This item will be moved to a future agenda. G. Discuss revisions to sections 7, 8 and 9 from Ordinance 1775 per Commission direction. The Board discussed starting from State Code on these revisions and then scratching the current sections. The handbook and then the mock hearing are bigger priorities then these revisions. H. New Business Stephen Schultz Mr. Schultz explained that Wednesdays are not a very good day for him to meet and he would prefer Monday or Tuesday meetings. The Board discussed the meeting schedule and decided to stay on Wednesday for now. I. Discuss future agenda topics. Next meeting date of Wednesday, February 24, 2010 confirmed. (Mr. Sullivan will not be attending the 2-24-10 meeting.) Discussion and/or decisions regarding draft of the ethics handbook. Website J. Adjourn (8 p.m.) Motion and Vote to adjourn the meeting. It was moved by Stephen Schultz, seconded by Rodger McCormick to adjourn the meeting. Those voting Aye being Stephen Schultz, Rodger McCormick and Mel Frost. Those voting No being none. The motion passed 3-0. Meeting adjourned at 7:41 p.m. ____________________________________ Melissa Frost, Board Chairperson Prepared by: _______________________________ Aimee Kissel, Deputy City Clerk Approved on:_____________________