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Home My WebLink About09-19-12 Board of Ethics Minutes MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ETHICS September 19, 2012 BOZEMAN, MONTANA These minutes are not word for word and should be considered in addition to the audio of the meeting. The audio recording of this meeting is available in the folder http://weblink.bozeman.net/I,VebLink8/0/fol/44506/Rowl.aspx The Board of Ethics of the City of Bozeman met in the Madison room, City Hall at 121 North Rouse on Wednesday, September 19, 2012. Present were board members Chris Carraway and Melissa Frost. 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 4:00 p.m. B. Public Comment Chris Carraway opened public comment. No person commented, so Mr. Carraway closed public comment. C. Approval of Minutes—June and July Minutes approved at the last meeting. D. Disclosure of information or comments received. None. E. Staff Report Ms. Brunckhorst reported that she was a guest lecturer recently for Betsy Webb's Master's program Ethics class. Greg Sullivan spoke regarding the board member he mentioned during the last meeting that needed to file a disclosure to be able to participate on a request for proposal. He provided members with a copy of the disclosure she submitted. He also explained the ethics disclosures are now located on Laserfiche and is accessible to the public via the city website. A link to the folder containing disclosures is located on the ethics webpage. Ms. Brunckhorst reported the latest version of the ethics handbook with the revisions to the gift provision was provided to a leadership team within city staff. She also emailed the Human 1 of4 Minutes of the Board of Ethics, September 19, 2012 Resources dept. the new version to provide for new employees. She also updated the acknowledgement form for the handbook. Staff did decide they will not require current employees to sign off again that they received the latest version of the handbook,though Ms. Brunckhorst will send copies out to all the departments, asking the department heads to distribute to anyone who would like a hard copy. The revised handbook will also be left in the city hall lobby and linked online. She will also place an article on the internal and external city websites about the revised handbook. The Board discussed the handbook format and the difficulties printing in the small booklet format. They decided to continue having Ms. Brunckhorst print the handbook in an 8-1/2 x 11 format as the smaller booklet format cannot be printed internally. G. Discuss Upcoming Staff Visits by City Attorney, Greg Sullivan Mr. Sullivan provided members with a copy of a memorandum he sent out to city directors that explained what he will be talking to city staff about in upcoming staff meetings. In those meetings he will be introducing himself, the board members, technical discussion of the gift process, talk to them about the avenues available to report and talk to them about upcoming trainings and possibly get feedback. He will explain to staff that talking with the staff person who's behavior is in question should happen first, with the second option being their immediate supervisor. The board and city attorney are there for reporting, but in a limited, well defined way and not for general work place disputes. The board of ethics is really set up as a last resort, only if you are not getting responses through your supervisor, superintendent, director or Human Resources staff. Mr. Sullivan provided board members with a copy of the schedule when he will visit the various departments. Board members and staff discussed the difficulties that may occur describing the gift provision. Board members and staff discussed whether to have board members attend the staff meetings with Mr. Sullivan. They decided against attending as there may be negative feelings or questions about what the Board of Ethics does that may take away from the message. F. Discuss/Begin Planning Ethics Training for 2013 and long term training goals Aimee Brunckhorst provided board members with an excerpt of the minutes when training was discussed. (August—brainstorming) • Discussed at director level and previously by board: Feel and look different than annual training • Sense that there is an ethical culture at work • Ethical training at work ties into the above vs. providing training as a separate away from work event • Split people out of normal workgroups for small group work/trainings 2 of 4 Minutes of the Board of Ethics, September 19, 2012 • Online scenarios? • Employees trained to lead/run ethics discussions? • Line staff or directors trained? • Feel of relationship between supervisors vs. employees so it doesn't feel forced? Dependent on each department. • Theme currently ethical culture and definitely moved away from rule focused, mechanics? • Apply the rules—continues with culture thrown in. Fine tuned. Here are scenarios that apply to your group of employees? • Where are people's expectations at? • If done in the context of regular staff meeting—expecting quick updates, not necessarily substantive vs. a working group or team meeting • Small group meetings that are made really convenient for that dept.? • Combine several small groups across departments • Have we beaten the application course? What are we trying to get at? • Use of Scenarios is designed so people can draw upon the lessons in the scenarios in a future situation • By focusing scenarios on the type of job they do — scenarios much more likely to be relatable to future situations • End result—people feel the city has an ethical culture, know good and bad ethics and they feel free to report it. • Scenarios focus on the function an official does: employees who work directly with the public constantly (finance clerks, etc), regulatory/enforcement (police, parking), supervisors dealing with oversight of employees, interactions with broader group of people in the city (clerks) • Different employee roles would see different types of possible violations • Scenarios focused on comments employees made in Ms. Webb's research • `Holding people accountable' Example: Line employee—you're the manager—what would you do? Get people to walk in another's shoes. Bridge the gap. • Example: Manager placed in the position of those on the front line. Use of Discretion (animal control officer example) • Police and Parking: interact one on one with citizens • Small training sessions that are focused. Specific schedule • Boards— going to regularly scheduled board meeting with a packet o Appearance of fairness doctrine o Quasi-judicial vs. legislative o Purchasing policy o Help in running meetings, work agendas, take minutes o Open meeting laws, emails 3 of 4 Minutes of the Board of Ethics, September 19, 2012 o Ethics handbook, etc. o Disclosures o Few scenarios o Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Brunckhorst go back to HPO and come up with a list of categories, different set of services to target? o Discussion regarding not making the list to long—creating a huge amount of work. o Get directors or a group of people to run them? More in house. o Betsy Webb helps with the structure and scenarios but have in house training. Mr. Sullivan briefly reported one more opinion he offered within the last month that he forgot to talk about earlier in the meeting during the staff report. The question was whether applicants to the Cemetery Board that are directly involved in the funeral business could be appointed to the board. Mr. Sullivan said that yes, they could be appointed, but would have to keep watch on the case by case issues that may come up to ensure if a conflict arises it is handled. The Commission looks for board members with expertise in the subject or industry, so excluding those with interests in a particular board would hinder the process. K. FYI /Discussion 1. Upcoming Schedule: • October: Scheduling conflicts—must move meeting date to Monday, October 29°i @ 4 o Ms. Brunckhorst will call Ms. McGarity about the date change. 2. Discussion regarding changes to city email procedures L. Adjournment Chris Carraway adjourned the meeting at 4:50 p.m. ( Z^ Chris a away, Board Chairpers n Prepared by: Aim e Brunckhorst, Deputy City Jerk Approved on: November 14, 2012 4 of 4