After a five-hour ethics commission meeting on Feb. 21, Mt. Juliet city commissioners and ethics commission members met for a workshop on Wednesday to make changes to the current ethics code.
They incorporated the by-laws rule, a definition for first-hand knowledge, and a form for people to file ethics complaints on Mt. Juliet officials, a hearing procedures rule, and more into the ordinance.
Ethics commission member Georgina Hughes brought proposed changes to the existing ethics codes.
“I started off with adding a definition for firsthand knowledge,” Hughes said. “I added some stuff about the ethics complaints. I think we need to have a form. I just proposed it (and) made one that I felt would be helpful.”
Hughes added elements from the city of Franklin’s ethics ordinance to her proposed changes.
“I added some hearing procedures, which basically came from Franklin,” Hughes said. “Then the forms on the public comments and stuff, those were some things I saw in some other cities I thought would be helpful.”
Hughes said having a form for people to make public comments about their officials when they make ethical violations would be helpful for the city commission.
“We don’t have a way for people to sign up for comments now, but I know it’s an issue to always have both sides of the comments between the people and Mt. Juliet officials,” Hughes said.
Mt. Juliet Mayor James Maness said it would also be wise to have this rule be defined by the state’s laws on citizen comments.
Maness said that while ethics officials can make some limitations on the citizen comments rule, they still need to have a policy in place to do so.
“If we wanted to allow people to register in advance for public comments, it would make our city recorder’s job a lot easier for our commission meetings,” Maness said.
One topic of discussion at the workshop was how investigations into future ethics complaints would be handled, and who would be handling them. In the event of a criminal investigation, the complaint would fall to the district attorney’s office to investigate.
“The investigator is — under this — the city attorney, unless there’s a problem such as investigating a commissioner against a commissioner,” City Attorney Gino Marchetti said. “They immediately have a conflict. But if it was ‘Joe Jones’ filing a suit against (a commissioner) or a complaint against (a commissioner), then the city attorney could investigate and figure out what it is.”
City commissioner Bill Trivett asked for the ethics workshop to clear up what he called a gray area to give the next commission a clear line.
“Whatever the complaint is, it’s just an evaluation to get you folks — or whoever the (ethics commission) is in the next 5-10 years — to evaluate that complaint,” Trivett said.
Hughes said that the way things are currently written, complaints are allegations.
“In my opinion, there needs to be a way that you can do an informal inquiry that doesn’t rise to the level of a complaint,” Hughes said.
Marchetti said a part in the existing ethics code allows for an individual to request an advisory opinion from the city attorney or ethics commission.
Mt. Juliet’s city commissioners shared their concerns with city attorneys over some of the elements of the new ethics laws including a rule on fees for ethics officials.
Mt. Juliet City Manager Kenny Martin said they have their own contractual services and use a certain amount of money up to $10,000 to set these services up.
Martin said it would not be a bad idea to have a line item in which it rolls over every year.
The discussion of inquiries led to the examination of how much time could pass before the complaint would no longer be valid.
It was decided that a complaint would need to be filed within 180 days or 365 days in the case of concealment.
Another question that was posed was what the definition of firsthand knowledge was.
The proposed changes to the existing ethics code also include a clause that requires all parties and witnesses to be sworn in prior to giving testimony at a hearing.
The city commission will host another workshop over the city’s ethics laws on May 29.