12/08/2003 Council Minutes (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNCIL MINUTES DECEMBER 8, 2003 APPROVED . 83 corresponded with Acting City Administrator / Director of Administration Tesch and City Clerk 84 Blair. 285 286 Councilmember Reinert stated these guidelines were submitted for consideration, and the Council did 287 have a meeting to discuss them, but they were deemed to be redundant, as most of them address laws 288 the Councilmembers took an oath to follow. He stated at subsequent meetings they discussed each of 289 these points, however they seemed to miss the point of why ethical guidelines were being put in 290 place. He indicated these are legal statements that do not guide behavior, and he believes that is why 291 they were not passed on for legal review. He stated these guidelines are just laws that are already in 292 place. 293 294 Councilmember Carlson commented that the question has been raised that if these were discussed at a 295 work session, why she and Councilmember Dahl did not speak up when discussed. She indicated for 296 health reasons, neither of them were present at that work session. She noted that work session took 297 place over a month after these guidelines were submitted. She indicated at an earlier meeting they did 298 discuss the conflict of interest statement, which shows that they are interested in ethics. She stated 299 they did adopt this at the September 17th work session, although a watered down version, stating 300 Councilmembers would follow the advice of the City Attorney. 301 302 Councilmember O'Donnell stated the conflict of interest statement was removed at the advice of the 303 City Attorney because it is included in Robert's Rules of Order. He indicated they did remove some 304 of the original statements in an effort to not make these guidelines redundant. He agrees with 305 Councilmember Reinert that some statements in this proposed set of guidelines are redundant with •06 what Councilmembers vow to uphold in their oath, but he believes there are several statements that 307 are not covered. He would recommend adding five of these guidelines to those previously adopted, 308 starting with statement five and going through statement nine. 309 310 Mayor Bergeson indicated the primary item on the floor is the set of guidelines proposed by 311 Councilmembers Carlson and Dahl. He asked if it would be appropriate to take these guidelines and 312 amend the guidelines previously adopted. The City Attorney offered that this is an agenda item, so he 313 does not know why the City Council could not adopt these guidelines in whole or in part. 314 315 Councilmember Carlson argued that putting these in the guidelines two of the City Councilmembers 316 have already voted against because of concerns with getting pertinent data, and to leave out the 317 conflict of interest statement which is the most important part places them in a position of having to 318 vote no on their own agenda item. 319 320 Councilmember Reinert stated whether Councilmembers voted for the previous guidelines or not is 321 irrelevant since they were passed and are in place. 322 323 Councilmember Carlson stated she is going back to the consensus language, stating the previous 324 guidelines do not reflect consensus. She referred also to the language from Duke Addicks that any 325 Councilmember who does not intent to follow a guideline should state why. Councilmember Reinert 326 indicated he does not read that as a Councilmember not having to follow the guidelines, only that they 327 do not have to agree with them. 328 • 7