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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-14-12 Board of Ethics Minutes MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ETHICS November 14, 2012 BOZEMAN, MONTANA These minutes are not word for word. The audio of this meeting is not available due to technical difficulties. The Board of Ethics of the City of Bozeman met in the Mayor's office, City Hall at 121 North Rouse on Wednesday,November 14, 2012. Present were board members Chris Carraway, Melissa Frost and Mary Jane McGarity. Staff present was City Attorney Greg Sullivan, and Deputy City Clerk Aimee Brunckhorst. A. Meeting Called to Order Chris Carraway called the meeting to order at 4:10 p.m. B. Public Comment Chris Carraway opened public comment. No person commented, so Mr. Carraway closed public comment. C. Approval of Minutes —August and September A motion to approve the minutes ofAgeust and September passed unanimously. Greg Sullivan was not in attendance at the beginning of the meeting so the order of the agenda was switched around to accommodate what he needed to be present for. D. Review Changes Made to the City Ethics Webpage Board members were pleased with the look and content of the webpage and appreciated the board page being redirected to the Ethics page. The day of the reoccurring meeting needs to change on the webpage. Board members will email any suggestions for changes or additions to the webpage to Ms. Brunckhorst. E. Review/Approve Gift Disclosure fill-able form Board members were happy with the look of the gift disclosure form with the following revisions: 1 of 5 Minutes of the Board of Ethics,November 14, 2012 • Link to the gift provision incorporated. • Make the last question a yes or no response. • Some way to electronically sign or acknowledge that by submitting, submitter is swearing the content is accurate? Board of Ethics members moved to approve the gift disclosure form with suggested edits. The motion was approved unanimously. Board members directed Ms. Brunckhorst to move forward with posting the form as soon as the changes were made without further review from the Board. F. Staff Report Aimee Brunckhorst reported that a citizen came by for a copy of the Ethics Handbook and indicated they may be contacting the Board of Ethics to file a complaint regarding how an agenda item was handled by the City Commission during a recent meeting. G. Disclosure of information or comments received. None. H. Report on Outcome of Staff Visits by City Attorney, Greg Sullivan Greg Sullivan joined the meeting and reported the following regarding the staff meetings he has been attending across the organization. • Some of the depts. that Greg has already met with: Water Reclamation, Water Treatment, Clerks, IT, Finance, fire department, Solid Waste,planning, engineering • Not done with meetings. Still need to meet with Police and Parks and Recreation. • Meetings from 4 to 15 people. • Meetings have been productive. • Spoke regarding: Collection of comments from Betsy Webb; importance of what we are doing. • Theme that at the meeting to hear what they have to say. • Trainings—want them to happen in a way that has meaning for them. • After 20 minutes or so, folks became engaged. Heard what people are facing. • Trying to think through the real life situations employees are dealing with and how to set trainings up so they make a difference. • Examples brought up: combining ethics training with substantive training. • Targeting technical area of people's responsibility and adding ethics to that. Example: Folks that handle cash— cross departmental group. Combine fraud training with ethics training? 2of5 Minutes of the Board of Ethics,November 14, 2012 • Identify several categories throughout the city and setting those up. In the past, ethics training season. Get rid of that idea. • Same concept to apply to the boards. Trainer attend regularly scheduled board meetings and combine ethics training with other training such as rules of order, open meeting laws, etc. • Feedback from past trainings received. • Fire: comment that 95% of the challenges they face were fixed with the gift provision. Get everything from direct gift to a group invite to a pre-opening to a restaurant. • Waste: envelopes at the holidays • Appreciated comments that all have strong connections to Montana and are independent. • Employees appreciated the Board of Ethics members changing the gift provision despite political frustrations. • Meetings lasted between 45 minutes to hour and a half. • By the end of December will have met with all depts. Final report on next agenda I. Review 2013 Ethics Training Outline Continued discussion regarding staff visits and how those related to upcoming trainings: • Focus this down on what are we going to do — • Who is developing the training? • Who will implement? • Training program evolve into a robust program. Monitoring training. Staff and Board members made the decision to write a commission resolution explaining the curriculum specifics each year and place approval of the resolution on the Commission's consent agenda so a record will memorialize was what was used for ethics training that year. • Next step—where does this fit within everything else we are doing with the city? • The Wed. after Thanksgiving Mr. Sullivan will ask directors to decide what resources will be given to get the training done. • Ms. Brunckhorst to check on the budgeted amount for the Board of Ethics and report back • Possibility of using masters students to help write curriculum—projects assignment? • Big part of the curriculum— facilitate a discussion with those employees that `handle cash'. Have them work with each other. Learn from each other. • Culturally sharing information. • Need a better understanding from director's group—who on staff will help?Are there resources above and beyond current resources? • Possibility of having MSU Local Government Center assist in some manner? 3 of 5 Minutes of the Board of Ethics,November 14, 2012 • Train the trainer? • Employees involved in training who have been working with the city for awhile? J. Determine game plan for working through Conflict of Interest provision Melissa Frost asked staff to pull out of the memo and ordinance 1775 from the Commission meeting in December, 2009 just that portion of the revisions that the Commission did not adopt at the time. This was sections 7, 8 and 9. This may help board members focus. J. FYI/Discussion 1. Upcoming Schedule: • December—everyone available for regularly scheduled meeting. o Agenda items: ■ Report on Outcome of Staff Visits by City Attorney, Greg Sullivan ■ Report on Resources Available for upcoming Trainings and Discussion regarding the next step in Developing Trainings ■ Discussion and Possible Decision on Revisions to Conflict of Interest and Post Employment ■ Review and Possibly Approve 2011-2012 Board of Ethics Report for Commission • January—all members likely available for regularly scheduled meeting. • February—all members likely available for regularly scheduled meeting. Other • Ms. Brunckhorst will write up a report for the Commission regarding the six board members that did not attend any of the in-person annual trainings for 2012 and send the report to the Commission via e-mail. • Ms. Brunckhorst was asked to draft the 2011-2012 Board of Ethics Report for member review in December. • Board members will look at the ethics webpage and email any suggestions to Ms. Brunckhorst. L. Adjournment Chris Carraway adjourned the meeting at 4:50 p.m. 4 of 5 Minutes of the Board of Ethics, November 14, 2012 Chris arr ay, Board Chair son b Prepared : p Y Air6e Brunckhorst, Depu City Clerk Approved on: )p r m& n 5 of 5 i