WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.120 Okay, good morning, everybody. It's April 29, 2021. It's 1002 and we're going to start 00:00:08.120 --> 00:00:16.200 our regularly scheduled Board of Ethics meeting. I had, I'd let Madison know beforehand that 00:00:16.200 --> 00:00:22.280 unfortunately my second vaccine shot at 11 and Flower Mound. So at 1030, I'm going to 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:28.920 jump off of this meeting. So I don't know if Madison or, or one of the staff members 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:36.600 have, do we, do we elect somebody to take over when I leave now or do we wait till 1030? 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:44.000 I think we can, we can do either. I'm just not, maybe we should just wait. I don't know 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:51.760 how long the meeting will take. So, okay. All right. Well, let's, we'll wait. So today, 00:00:51.760 --> 00:01:00.040 the first item on the agenda, Board of Ethics, Item A, Board of Ethics. Okay. Consider approval 00:01:00.040 --> 00:01:09.560 of the minutes for March 25, 2021. Does anybody have a motion or any comments on that? I move 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:16.080 approval of the minutes. Okay. Annette has moved for approval. Is there a second? A second. 00:01:16.080 --> 00:01:21.720 Rob Rayner or I guess it was Ronnie who said it first. Ronnie seconded that. And then I'll 00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:27.280 just, is there any more discussion? I don't see anybody. So I'll go through everybody 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:41.400 so we can each vote. Vote for approval. I vote yes. Don? I think he mouthed yes. You're 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:57.520 first. All right. Rob? Yes. Annette? Yes. And I'll, I'll for the record, Don has given 00:01:57.520 --> 00:02:14.680 a thumbs up and I saw his mouth say yes. Patricia? Yes. Dustin? Yes. Ronnie? Yes. Okay. That's 00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:20.600 everyone, right? Okay. So motion is approved. The minutes are approved. And move, moving 00:02:20.600 --> 00:02:27.240 to Item B, Receiver Report and Hold Discussion regarding revisions to the Handbook for Boards, 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:32.040 Senators and Council Committees. And I will say when me Madison talks, it's a good meeting 00:02:32.040 --> 00:02:35.600 that I won't be here the whole time. Cause I think these next two items, she's going 00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:42.240 to kind of lead the discussion. So I'm just going to turn it over to her. Okay. And I 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:45.760 have a quick presentation. So I'm just going to pull that up real quick and then we'll 00:02:45.760 --> 00:02:59.760 go through, through this item. All right. So I don't know if you all know, but the city 00:02:59.760 --> 00:03:05.320 one has a handbook that generally governs all of the city's volunteer boards and commissions. 00:03:05.320 --> 00:03:09.720 And some updates, this handbook were recently proposed by the city secretary's office and 00:03:09.720 --> 00:03:14.440 were approved by the city council last week. So this is just to give you a brief overview 00:03:14.440 --> 00:03:20.280 of the major updates as they relate to you as the Board of Ethics, just so that you're 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:27.200 aware of them. So the first major change made was to include information in the handbook 00:03:27.200 --> 00:03:31.360 stating that board and commission members information is subject to the Texas Public 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:38.160 Information Act. The handbook also states that all members can elect to withhold some 00:03:38.160 --> 00:03:42.300 of their personal information, like their home address or telephone number by submitting 00:03:42.300 --> 00:03:48.440 a public access form, but that has to be done before the 14th day after your appointment. 00:03:48.440 --> 00:03:59.080 So I think you're all past that point at this time. The next update was the handbook clarifies 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:05.120 that board and commission, their chair and vice chair have to be elected annually. And 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:10.120 then basically it says that that is to happen in January or February. So we won't have any 00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:17.480 issues going forward with, oh, when is that supposed to take place? So do you all have 00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:26.240 any questions about this before we move on, these two changes? Wonderful. All right. So 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:33.600 this is kind of the big thing, I think. The handbook revisions updated the for cause removal 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:39.760 process for board and commission members. So just as a reminder, as a board member, 00:04:39.760 --> 00:04:46.400 you can be removed from your position by the city council if you either have three unexcused 00:04:46.400 --> 00:04:52.040 absences from board meetings in a year, if you fail to complete your appointment forms, 00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:56.960 which are those forms that you completed at the very beginning when you were appointed. 00:04:56.960 --> 00:05:01.880 Or if you, this is the new updated, they've made it so that you can be removed for cause 00:05:01.880 --> 00:05:07.000 if you fail to complete your annual ethics training, which I'm sure you all are aware 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:13.140 of that. And I do want to just plug here that we just sent out that training in an email. 00:05:13.140 --> 00:05:19.160 So hopefully you've seen that and you can complete that training. If you've already 00:05:19.160 --> 00:05:23.120 completed it just previously, I'd like Don and Patricia, I think you guys already sent 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:28.320 yours in. But now we're using an electronic process. So please, if you haven't gotten 00:05:28.320 --> 00:05:33.080 that email, let me know so I can try to make sure you get that training complete. 00:05:33.080 --> 00:05:38.600 And I would say Madison, you might kind of make yourself a note to bring that up and 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:42.800 remind everybody to make sure everybody does it and nobody, we don't have to go through 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:47.280 a removal. That would not be fun. Yeah, no, I'll definitely send out reminders. 00:05:47.280 --> 00:05:53.360 I just thought I'd mention it here since we're talking about it. So those are the reasons 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:58.360 that you can be removed for cause. And under the new process, the city secretary's office 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:03.080 will send out a notification to a member to any member that has failed to comply with 00:06:03.080 --> 00:06:09.240 one of these requirements. The member will then have 10 business days to either correct 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:15.400 the failure if they didn't complete their ethics training or if they haven't completed 00:06:15.400 --> 00:06:22.680 the their appointment forms, or they may have 10 business days to resign if they were absent 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:28.680 for more than three meetings, or three or more meetings. I think it's more than three 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:34.980 meetings, actually. And then so if they don't correct that failure, then the city secretary's 00:06:34.980 --> 00:06:39.480 office will place an item on the next city council agenda that will allow the city council 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:46.080 to remove the board member. So are there any questions about this process? Yes, I think 00:06:46.080 --> 00:06:51.800 I see Rob. I think I have to stop sharing actually. So give me one second. There we 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:57.920 go. Question, are there other boards that have alternate members on it? And how is that 00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:04.480 affected on attendance? I don't I'm not sure if there are other board members. But if you're 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:10.400 an alternate member, sometimes like today we Deborah, even though she was it came she 00:07:10.400 --> 00:07:16.560 wasn't necessary to show up. So so her not being here, it would not be counted as an 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:23.600 unexcused absence. But if you know, say, we said, Rob, you have to be there. And you can't 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:28.280 and you didn't come for a reason that you like that was unexcused, then you would be 00:07:28.280 --> 00:07:40.120 counted as absent. Does that make sense? Yes. Thank you. Any other questions? So is the 00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:44.540 you said that goes for city council for removal, but is it just I mean, is that automatic? 00:07:44.540 --> 00:07:50.320 Where does the city council vote on that? Just wondering. I believe they vote on it. 00:07:50.320 --> 00:07:55.320 Catherine, do you know more about if they could decide to not remove somebody at that 00:07:55.320 --> 00:08:02.320 point? And don't have that right off the top of my head if they could decide not to remove 00:08:02.320 --> 00:08:12.200 based on that, but we can we can get back. Okay, not a huge deal. I was just wondering. 00:08:12.200 --> 00:08:25.240 Other questions about this? Okay, good. You just have one more slide on this. So we'll 00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:31.840 move through that real quick. So there are a couple other looks here we go. Here we go. 00:08:31.840 --> 00:08:38.080 There are a couple other kind of non substantive updates that don't really affect the board 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:41.960 in any way. But I put them here just in case you have any questions about them. I'm not 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:47.880 going to read through them. But that's kind of the end of the updates. So not too many. 00:08:47.880 --> 00:08:53.600 But I thought the for cause removal process update was important. So anybody have questions 00:08:53.600 --> 00:09:03.400 about this? Or anything? Anything that we talked about just now? Doesn't look like it. 00:09:03.400 --> 00:09:12.520 All right. Okay. Since there's no question, I think there's more no more discussion on 00:09:12.520 --> 00:09:19.920 that. So I will move on unless somebody speaks up. All right. So the last agenda item is 00:09:19.920 --> 00:09:25.720 receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding future meeting topics. 00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:34.160 And I'll go ahead and throw it over to Madison again. Okay. So this item is, you know, as 00:09:34.160 --> 00:09:42.000 you all know, we just did the prioritization kind of worksheet. And so the your backup 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:49.160 has the results of that. And this item is really when I was talking to Laura, we wanted 00:09:49.160 --> 00:09:53.960 to make sure that when we were going to have these discussions moving forward, that you 00:09:53.960 --> 00:09:59.280 had all the information you wanted basically. So this item is really for me to get direction 00:09:59.280 --> 00:10:05.600 on what information to bring back to you for each of these topics, like benchmarking information 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:11.880 or historical information, things like that. And then I also I think, you know, there are 00:10:11.880 --> 00:10:17.640 obviously some of these were the lowest priority. And so I wanted to see if there was any feedback 00:10:17.640 --> 00:10:22.240 on if we still wanted to have that discussion, like for the orientation, do we do we still 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:30.160 want to have an orientation, given where it was ranked in the priority. So my idea was 00:10:30.160 --> 00:10:35.120 just to go through each item individually, and then see if y'all had any feedback on 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:42.960 what information you wanted to see when we actually come back to you to discuss the topic. 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:49.440 So the first item is discuss if board members who have submitted complaints against city 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:54.120 officials should be able to participate in preliminary assessments or hearings of different 00:10:54.120 --> 00:10:58.280 future complaints for the same city official. So is there any information that y'all would 00:10:58.280 --> 00:11:07.160 like to see to help inform this discussion in the future? 00:11:07.160 --> 00:11:14.040 I guess I have a question. Wouldn't that be subsumed under conflict of interest? I mean, 00:11:14.040 --> 00:11:25.080 I get if if if you are, you can't be on a board where for the council member that appointed 00:11:25.080 --> 00:11:30.720 you, but it does seem like a just a natural kind of extension that if you filed a complaint 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:35.840 against that person, you shouldn't be sitting on that board. I mean, I don't know, I think 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:41.080 it's important. I just don't know if it needs to be. I don't know. Curious if anybody else 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:50.300 has an opinion about that. 00:11:50.300 --> 00:11:54.560 That would sound to me like that would be some very 00:11:54.560 --> 00:11:55.560 logic 00:11:55.560 --> 00:12:00.640 touchy territory to to talk about them twice. 00:12:00.640 --> 00:12:02.480 Yeah. Yeah. 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:05.080 In a discussion of of complaints. 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:14.480 How has that been handled for previous complaints? 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:18.920 There's no restriction. We've had board members submit complaints in the past, and we've not 00:12:18.920 --> 00:12:30.880 restricted their ability to be on future panels or board in part as part of future board meetings. 00:12:30.880 --> 00:12:37.960 So as far as I guess, I think what the what Madison wanted to do with this agenda item 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:45.960 is just get like what maybe like history of this situation or, you know, maybe look at 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:51.240 other cities, what they do or whatever. So I think what she wants is just like, we want 00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:59.560 anything like that for when we put this this item on a meeting as an agenda item to discuss 00:12:59.560 --> 00:13:03.680 and decide, you know, what we want to do, whether we'd want to like amend, make an amendment 00:13:03.680 --> 00:13:10.680 to the ordinance or whatever. So does anybody have any like, I guess Dustin saying, like, 00:13:10.680 --> 00:13:13.920 maybe we could bring you could look into like what we've done in the past, which maybe we 00:13:13.920 --> 00:13:18.720 already know that pretty quickly. But is there anything else that you want Madison to do like 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:25.240 research on or bring to the meeting for that? 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:29.760 I think that one might be that people kind of, you know, I think we might already have 00:13:29.760 --> 00:13:31.720 a have opinions on that. 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:35.760 Okay, well, I'll make sure I'll go ahead. 00:13:35.760 --> 00:13:44.040 It is a priority right now, according to our survey. And the only time that it's really 00:13:44.040 --> 00:13:52.440 occurred was when the violation was against a ruling made by this committee. And I'm not 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:55.800 sure that that wasn't appropriate at the time. 00:13:55.800 --> 00:14:02.800 Yeah, so I'll make sure when we come back with this item probably next next month, that 00:14:02.800 --> 00:14:09.100 we have some info on when if when and well, we know this has occurred in the past and 00:14:09.100 --> 00:14:20.080 how that has been handled previously. So that sounds good. Then the next item is discuss 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:24.980 potentially prohibiting the processing or submission of ethics complaints during election 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:26.540 season. 00:14:26.540 --> 00:14:35.800 So is there any, would you like me to look at other what other cities do? 00:14:35.800 --> 00:14:40.880 I would love to hear what other cities do. I think that would be helpful. 00:14:40.880 --> 00:14:48.800 Okay. And so as far as that's concerned, I obviously I don't want to I can't look at 00:14:48.800 --> 00:14:53.400 every city, right. So just two or three cities, maybe. Yeah. 00:14:53.400 --> 00:15:00.240 Okay, a couple two or three cities, maybe. I think Dallas and Fort Worth, they both have 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:01.240 ethics ordinances. 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:04.520 You might also I don't you know, and I don't I don't know what the difference would be 00:15:04.520 --> 00:15:11.920 between like Dallas and a city of a similar size. But in Dallas, it's so big. But in Denton, 00:15:11.920 --> 00:15:17.680 it feels a lot smaller as far as people knowing each other and kind of the same people running 00:15:17.680 --> 00:15:21.640 in politics here probably know. 00:15:21.640 --> 00:15:28.200 So that's a good point, you know, the our office, our department internal audit has 00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:33.680 kind of a set of what we consider to be pure city cities based on size and population growth 00:15:33.680 --> 00:15:38.800 and things like that. I can look into those cities and see one if they have ethics complaints 00:15:38.800 --> 00:15:44.880 and then also if they do what their ordinances potentially say about this topic. And then 00:15:44.880 --> 00:15:49.640 I can also kind of hit those big cities like Dallas and Fort Worth and Austin just so that 00:15:49.640 --> 00:15:55.000 we have, you know, what they do as well. Does that sound good? Yeah, that sounds great. 00:15:55.000 --> 00:16:04.200 I would just say three total cities don't make too much work for yourself. Yeah. 00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:19.640 Okay. Then anything else on this topic? Or we get to move on to the next one is discuss 00:16:19.640 --> 00:16:25.880 revising the confidentiality section to clarify who can communicate what if an ethics complaint 00:16:25.880 --> 00:16:31.040 is submitted. Particularly should the respondent be able to request the board consider for 00:16:31.040 --> 00:16:38.680 Volody. I think part of this is the current ordinance. There's the ex parte communication 00:16:38.680 --> 00:16:50.160 section that really restricts communication between the board and the parties to a complaint. 00:16:50.160 --> 00:16:56.920 So but then we also have I think in some ways the complaint, the complainant has been able 00:16:56.920 --> 00:17:01.000 to communicate something the respondent is not able to do any of that until the hearing. 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:05.320 So I think that's kind of the question there. Is there any information y'all would like 00:17:05.320 --> 00:17:11.240 to see on this before we have a discussion about it? Again, I think what other cities 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:16.240 do if they I don't know if they're, you know, if they even have frivolous and if they do 00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:39.600 if they have anything that addresses it. Okay. That might be an answer for all of them. Okay. 00:17:39.600 --> 00:17:45.720 So we'll look at city information on that item as well. Anything else before we move 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:54.360 to the next item? The next item is some minor adjustments to the rules of procedure and 00:17:54.360 --> 00:17:59.160 the ordinance that we've already kind of talked about. I would say that these really aren't 00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:06.960 substantive in a big way, but they're kind of higher up on the priority list. So I think 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:12.240 my question really here is do we need to have another discussion about these or kind of 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:15.780 at the end of this process when we potentially have changes to the ordinance, would you like 00:18:15.780 --> 00:18:24.240 to bring those back as a package? I will say, you know, over the past few years being on 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:31.360 the board and I guess, you know, maybe second, second year of being chair. I don't feel like 00:18:31.360 --> 00:18:35.640 I get clear. I don't every time we talk to council, it seems like sometimes they're like 00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:38.920 bring things one at a time. Sometimes they're like bringing in a package and another time 00:18:38.920 --> 00:18:43.660 they bring something that gets through really quickly. So if you have any way to figure 00:18:43.660 --> 00:18:48.760 out, you know, what they're going, cause like I've brought stuff and then they say, no, 00:18:48.760 --> 00:18:53.940 come back with more. If you have an idea of whether if we just take this, it will go through 00:18:53.940 --> 00:18:58.320 or if we need to do it all at once, like what they're going to approve and what they're 00:18:58.320 --> 00:19:05.160 going to allow us to do that. I guess that would be my only comment on that one, which 00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:09.920 I mean, could change, you know, the lectures are what Tuesday, so there's going to be, 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:14.800 we might not know cause there might be new people. 00:19:14.800 --> 00:19:20.760 Yes, I can try to get that information. I'll probably wait until after the election since 00:19:20.760 --> 00:19:28.400 it's yeah, for sure. But yeah, I can, I can do that. And then, you know, before we even 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:33.440 get to this, this on the list, you know, we'll have at least another meeting next month. 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:36.680 So hopefully I'll have some more information at that point and we can potentially talk 00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:45.080 about how we want to package the, any potential changes that we come up with, um, to the council. 00:19:45.080 --> 00:19:57.280 All right. Anything else on this item? Um, the next one is discuss if termination of 00:19:57.280 --> 00:20:03.160 employment relationship from a business entity, uh, results in a conflict of interest no longer 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:12.400 being current. Um, this kind of came up as part of a, uh, advisory opinion that we had 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:18.640 a month or so ago. Um, so I think obviously we would include that information. Is there 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:23.840 anything else about this or any questions you have, um, about this? 00:20:23.840 --> 00:20:37.600 Peer cities again would be my comment. Okay. And is there also, um, in the like state statutes, 00:20:37.600 --> 00:20:45.440 do they have like a, like a time limit or is it just current? Okay. So also look into 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:57.960 the state legislation. Yeah. Yeah. Um, they're the conflict of interest for them on that. 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:02.640 So really kind of trying to get some information on what other cities do regarding what is 00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:11.840 considered a current conflict of interest. That's what you're asking. Yeah. Yeah. Anybody 00:21:11.840 --> 00:21:25.040 else? Um, the next item is having a board of ethics orientation, which would just kind 00:21:25.040 --> 00:21:30.520 of outline the ethics complaint process. And we just kind of informational session. Um, 00:21:30.520 --> 00:21:34.560 I think this, I had a similar question about, is this something we still feel like we need 00:21:34.560 --> 00:21:41.640 to do given how it was ranked by everyone? Uh, I would say, um, you know, it's ranked 00:21:41.640 --> 00:21:48.480 low, but I mean, definitely maybe start next year. Um, you know, now we're kind of, you 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:53.800 know, we've had several meetings about the ethics complaint process because of your, 00:21:53.800 --> 00:22:00.240 um, your presentation and, um, we have one brand new member and then I guess another 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:05.000 member that's been on for like a year. So I don't know if I know Patricia was interested 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:12.400 in it last year and I dunno, it never happened. It's 2020 was a weird time. So, um, I dunno, 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:18.160 I would say we definitely should put it on the, something that we do at least starting 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:23.080 next year. I don't know as far as what I, you know, what, when we would discuss that 00:22:23.080 --> 00:22:26.120 because I, you know, if we're not going to do it to next year, I'd say low priority, 00:22:26.120 --> 00:22:38.920 let's get the changes first. But that's my opinion. That makes sense. Okay. So it sounds 00:22:38.920 --> 00:22:44.520 like the direction I'm hearing is to pretty much kind of delay this item until maybe after 00:22:44.520 --> 00:22:49.840 the next appointment process or something like that where we potentially have, um, new 00:22:49.840 --> 00:22:56.520 members or have like an annual orientation where we just go over everything again. Um, 00:22:56.520 --> 00:23:05.200 could be another option. I mean, I'm not sure if annual orientation, you know, a lot of 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:10.480 us, um, several of us have been on this board for a while now and I think we understand 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:14.560 it definitely if there's new appointments, we should have one, but I would say maybe 00:23:14.560 --> 00:23:20.740 we just discuss what would be in the orientation, maybe later this year. And so that by the 00:23:20.740 --> 00:23:26.360 time next year, if there's going to be some, some change in the board, um, we can do it 00:23:26.360 --> 00:23:35.720 then. Yeah. I don't feel, um, as a newest member, I don't feel a huge need to go through 00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:40.040 an orientation after going through the ethics complaint process at the last meeting and 00:23:40.040 --> 00:23:45.560 before the last meeting. Um, since you put together all the, you know, the flowcharts 00:23:45.560 --> 00:23:51.920 for the process and then the narratives, um, I feel comfortable with that. So if that makes 00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:58.680 a difference to anyone else, I think that's a good point. He kind of came on when we kind 00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:05.480 of all went through somewhat of an orientation of how it works. Right. Okay. So go ahead. 00:24:05.480 --> 00:24:10.240 Oh, I was just going to say, I, I put my fingers to my lips. I was talking to my kids, but 00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:15.400 I want to make sure nobody thought I was getting ripped. I'm, uh, you know, watching kids, 00:24:15.400 --> 00:24:22.080 you know, spouse is working. I'm on this. So it's a, yeah. Anyway, go ahead. All right. 00:24:22.080 --> 00:24:29.960 So then it sounds like maybe have, um, a discussion kind of, uh, towards the end of the year about 00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:35.960 what we would want an orientation to look like if we, if we needed to have one basically. 00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:47.680 Yeah. Okay. Sounds good. Um, and then the last item on here is discuss outlining and 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:53.440 potentially formalizing procedures to be followed if a board member is contacted by a news agency. 00:24:53.440 --> 00:25:01.160 Does anybody have any, uh, anything that they would want on this item or any thoughts about 00:25:01.160 --> 00:25:09.840 this? I thought it was already pretty clear. We're not supposed to talk. Is that? Well, 00:25:09.840 --> 00:25:15.040 I guess if there's a complaint, there are certain things about the complaint. Um, but 00:25:15.040 --> 00:25:21.600 I don't know. I mean, I, I, I got contacted by a new news agency once and I emailed them 00:25:21.600 --> 00:25:28.480 back and then I never heard from again. So I don't, I guess it's not that pressing, but, 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:35.840 um, I don't know in my position, it's kind of like, I, you know, I don't want to go out 00:25:35.840 --> 00:25:41.280 of line or anything. So that was higher up in my priority list because it affects me, 00:25:41.280 --> 00:25:46.280 but it's not that big of a deal, I guess, because the DRC doesn't really contact me. 00:25:46.280 --> 00:25:53.920 Well, I think not talking to them and then referring them to the chairman of our committee. 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:59.980 Uh, Rob, I agree with that. I think that's well, that's why the chairman gets paid the 00:25:59.980 --> 00:26:07.920 big bucks. But, uh, but I remember reading, we had a situation, uh, talking to city managers 00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:14.740 and lawyers and such, but I read in the paper, there was a specific, uh, uh, flow chart as 00:26:14.740 --> 00:26:19.440 it were of who we would talk to and who would talk to the press and such. And, and I'd like 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:25.440 to see if we could revisit that. I don't know how many months ago that was in the paper, 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:33.080 Madison, but it was a pretty well defined, I think by the city manager as to who should 00:26:33.080 --> 00:26:37.720 talk to who and before it finally gets out to the press. And I, I, I think that would 00:26:37.720 --> 00:26:44.400 be important for us to at least know those guidelines besides the, uh, the all safe one, 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:46.000 which is contact the chair. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:53.760 Um, and I'd also like to know, Madison, um, well, as far as, you know, I guess the, whether 00:26:53.760 --> 00:27:00.140 it's the chair or individual speaking that, but also just any kind of guidelines other 00:27:00.140 --> 00:27:06.160 boards have as far as the chair or anyone else and what, you know, and I know our board 00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:12.400 is a lot different and there is like confidentiality, but, um, like I said, I, I want guidance 00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:17.180 in case I get asked questions. 00:27:17.180 --> 00:27:22.680 I think I maybe put this higher on my priorities because I didn't, I don't think I've gotten 00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:27.820 any direction on this. I haven't been contacted by anyone, but if I was, I wouldn't know what 00:27:27.820 --> 00:27:32.880 to, you know, what the proper response would be or if I'm allowed to respond to that. So 00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:38.000 I put this, I think higher on my list and orientation because I was pretty clear on 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:42.680 what the process was, but this was something I haven't seen anything written down for, 00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:49.440 um, what's appropriate for us to be our contact. 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:53.720 So it sounds like maybe there's some, a flow chart that Rob is referencing that we can 00:27:53.720 --> 00:27:58.600 try to figure out what that was, um, and see if there's any other guidelines that other 00:27:58.600 --> 00:28:04.400 boards might have, um, uh, and we, I can try to get that information for y'all for when 00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:14.200 we have this conversation. Anything else on this item? 00:28:14.200 --> 00:28:18.080 And then obviously there are, there are some sections of the ordinance that discuss confidentiality 00:28:18.080 --> 00:28:23.000 about ethics complaints. So we'll include that information as well. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:37.860 Okay. All right. Well, I think that's all the items on this list. Um, I think it's appropriate. 00:28:37.860 --> 00:28:43.760 I just wanted to check with y'all and see if you liked this process. Um, obviously I 00:28:43.760 --> 00:28:48.640 know this meeting wasn't necessarily too in depth, but I thought it was good to get some 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:52.040 of this information and requests from y'all. Um, 00:28:52.040 --> 00:28:57.720 I really liked that process and I appreciated the time it took to do it. Cause it, it was 00:28:57.720 --> 00:29:00.400 a good way to think about what priorities were. 00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:05.560 Yeah, me too. I, I, you know, and now we can kind of hit through some of these and me and 00:29:05.560 --> 00:29:08.760 me and you can discuss before the next meeting. Cause some of them I think will go quick. 00:29:08.760 --> 00:29:12.240 I actually thought this meeting was going to go longer, but I think it's about to end. 00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:16.560 So I don't have to jump off just yet, but, um, and then, you know, maybe after we hit 00:29:16.560 --> 00:29:21.160 all these, maybe it'll take a few months. We can kind of have another, okay, what's everybody's 00:29:21.160 --> 00:29:27.400 ideas, but kind of do it. I don't know, a democratic way of, of deciding what we're 00:29:27.400 --> 00:29:31.400 talking about versus just me and you before the meeting. 00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:36.880 Also, I do have an inquiry. Has there been anything done about moving our meetings to 00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:43.020 the afternoon? I think we had talked about that once before cause some of our schedules 00:29:43.020 --> 00:29:46.400 are certainly more heavy in the morning than in the afternoons. 00:29:46.400 --> 00:29:53.600 Yeah, we, um, I think we have all of our meetings, uh, scheduled out under this current situation. 00:29:53.600 --> 00:30:00.200 Um, I think we're allowed to talk about this cause we're on future topics, but, um, I think 00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:04.360 there's a potential that we're going to have people start coming back even boards and commissions. 00:30:04.360 --> 00:30:11.000 There's going to be a discussion in May by the council about that. Um, so we have all 00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:17.160 the meetings out till I believe September or October scheduled. Um, some of them we 00:30:17.160 --> 00:30:21.320 were able to get in the afternoon and some we were not just because other meetings were 00:30:21.320 --> 00:30:26.120 scheduled. Um, we'll continue to try to get pushed for that three o'clock time, um, if 00:30:26.120 --> 00:30:31.000 we can. Um, but I also think coming up, we might need to, we might have a discussion 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:35.880 about, um, you know, we previously had meetings in the evenings and we might be able to move 00:30:35.880 --> 00:30:41.960 back to that. You might have to move back to that, uh, uh, time. We might be able to 00:30:41.960 --> 00:30:45.200 move back to that time if you guys would like to do that. So I think we're a little bit 00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:51.240 up in the air, but we'll, until we know more, we'll keep pushing for the three o'clock virtual 00:30:51.240 --> 00:30:58.160 meetings. Thank you. Okay. Um, if there's anything else, I'm going to have to have somebody 00:30:58.160 --> 00:31:04.680 else take over, but if we're done, we can go ahead and adjourn the meeting. I just real, 00:31:04.680 --> 00:31:08.960 real quick on this last item. I want to say, uh, it sounds like this process worked well. 00:31:08.960 --> 00:31:14.160 So if you have ideas, just send them to me and I'll keep, I'll start on a new list basically. 00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:19.280 So, um, if you don't feel like you have to wait until a couple of months from now. Very 00:31:19.280 --> 00:31:25.400 fine job, Madison. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Madison. Thank you all so much. 00:31:25.400 --> 00:31:31.240 Okay. Uh, is there anything else from anybody? Not trying to rush. I can have somebody else 00:31:31.240 --> 00:31:36.000 take over chair if there is, but I don't think we have anything else to discuss this meeting. 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:43.280 So, um, thanks everybody for coming and we'll go ahead and adjourn at 10 34. Thanks. Bye.