WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.800 less easy to spell it. It's M-O-A-R. Yeah, I'm sure you get it wrong all the time. 00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:12.320 All right, it's six. So everybody ready? I don't know. I guess it's probably just recording. 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:20.000 Yep. Okay. All right. So we'll call to order this specially called meeting of the Board of Ethics. 00:00:22.560 --> 00:00:32.640 So we have one agenda item. BOE 22-02022. Request for an advisory opinion number 22-001. Received 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:41.360 June 15, 2022 from City Auditor Madison Warshak concerning potential pending matters, conflict of 00:00:41.360 --> 00:00:49.760 interest applicability, and refusal recommendation. And since Madison is asking for this, we have Chris 00:00:49.760 --> 00:00:58.720 Moore here in her place for the meeting. Let's see. So let me see. On the agenda information sheet, 00:00:58.720 --> 00:01:08.160 pretty much says the same thing. She's asked for that. And we need to come up with an advisory 00:01:08.160 --> 00:01:12.800 opinion within 30 days of this receipt. So we'll have this meeting tonight. And then afterwards, 00:01:12.800 --> 00:01:17.120 I can write something up with our findings and we'll send it to Chris. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:24.560 So I think that's important on there. So we'll get to what she has asked. 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:37.040 So Madison was elected as the president or the, I guess, let's see, maybe not president. Let me 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:44.640 not word that wrong. At-large board member. At-large board member for the Association of 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:51.600 Local Government Auditors. And so she asked us to consider two questions. If she has a current 00:01:51.600 --> 00:01:56.000 conflicting interest by serving on the board of directors of the Association of Local Government 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:02.400 Auditors, as described in an email that we all got, saying she is a member or a board member of 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:09.440 it. And if so, under the conflict of interest prohibit prohibition 2-273A, which is conflict 00:02:09.440 --> 00:02:15.200 of interest, is her office prohibited from being a member of the association using city funds or 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:24.480 paying for training events using city funds? And she also sent us her contract with the city, 00:02:24.480 --> 00:02:30.480 which says the city will pay for her dues and for her, you know, I guess it's her conferences. 00:02:31.600 --> 00:02:39.360 Let's see, it's section 12 of her contract. Employer, the city agrees to budget and pay for 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:45.680 professional dues, memberships and subscriptions as needed and participation in national, regional, 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:53.600 state and local organizations. And then I also emailed her today. And I think Chris Moore was 00:02:53.600 --> 00:03:01.600 actually CC'd on all of it. And so that Dustin and Patricia can know that I had asked her like, so how 00:03:01.600 --> 00:03:06.320 does this come about when you are going to go to a conference or pay dues, you go in front of the 00:03:06.320 --> 00:03:12.640 city and say like, I want this money. And she replied that, well, she gave me a long reply. 00:03:12.640 --> 00:03:17.360 And I was like, so to clarify, you propose the budget for the city auditors, which includes the 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:23.040 dues, conferences and travel, and it's approved as part of the city budget instead of standalone. 00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:28.880 And she said, correct. And Chris, you can jump in if I'm getting any of that wrong, but it sounds 00:03:28.880 --> 00:03:35.040 like her dues and conferences and travels for conferences of this association isn't standalone. 00:03:35.040 --> 00:03:43.040 It's part of the city budget, which I think is important when we go to the ordinance, 00:03:43.040 --> 00:03:51.120 because under conflict of interest, it's about what deliberation is prohibited 00:03:51.920 --> 00:03:58.960 and deliberation doesn't include the city budget. So if her dues are part of the city budget- 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:02.560 It's not really benefiting her, it's benefiting the city. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:09.120 Yeah, that's correct. But I think it doesn't even, as far as whether it's a conflict of interest, 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:18.800 I think when you look at 2-273(a)(3)(f), if she serves as a board of directors or an officer 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:24.880 on a non-profit corporation or on a corporate association, she is on the board of an unincorporated 00:04:24.880 --> 00:04:30.960 association. But then when you go into the prohibited deliberation, there's no deliberation 00:04:30.960 --> 00:04:35.520 because it doesn't fall under deliberation under the code because it's part of the city budget. 00:04:35.520 --> 00:04:44.320 I think that the provision about the board of directors, I think it was probably put in place 00:04:44.320 --> 00:04:49.360 to say if somebody on council is also sitting on a non-profit board, they can't vote for their 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:57.200 non-profit to get money. But I can see why Madison could possibly fit under it as well, 00:04:57.200 --> 00:05:02.480 since she is a city official and she is on this board of an association. So I think unfortunately, 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:18.960 she might fall under it. But my opinion would be like you may fall under the 2-273(a)(3)(f), 00:05:18.960 --> 00:05:24.000 but since it's part of the city budget, it wouldn't actually be a conflict of interest 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:29.040 because there's no prohibited deliberation because it's the budget. So it falls under 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:37.600 not being deliberation. Let's see, because I think deliberation is defined under the 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:45.360 definitions portion of the ordinance and the last sentence is this term is not applied to 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:51.520 general vote on a broad comprehensive or omnibus motion such as approval of the city budget or 00:05:51.520 --> 00:06:00.480 polling places. So what do you guys think? I think that was pretty summary. I mean, I think by the 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:10.720 definition of conflicting interest and item F, I mean that describes this situation completely. 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:18.800 She's on the board and wasn't appointed there by the city council. So I think they answered her 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:27.200 question one in her email. Yes. Regarding using the city funds to pay for the training events. 00:06:27.200 --> 00:06:32.640 I mean, since that is part of the budget, there is no deliberation. I mean, 00:06:32.640 --> 00:06:43.600 she's not proposing any motion or any item for the council to consider other than the training funds 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:51.840 for her department. And if you, she, I think you said she provided her employment contract 00:06:51.840 --> 00:06:58.320 and the contract specifically says that the city will pay for professional dues, 00:06:58.320 --> 00:07:08.720 memberships and subscriptions. And this is part of her, that's section 12 and then section 13 is 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:15.280 professional development. And that covers that as well. So in her email to the council, she 00:07:15.280 --> 00:07:24.800 disclosed, she disclosed her membership on the board. That's covered or that that's required 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:32.880 under section 10 of her contract. So I think she covered that. And the participation in board 00:07:32.880 --> 00:07:39.760 meetings is not going to be, she's not using city funds for that. So it's kind of, I mean, 00:07:39.760 --> 00:07:47.600 I think by the letter of how it's stated in the, in the ordinance, it does fall under conflicting 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:57.360 interest, but I don't think that any of the deliberation applies here. And she's already 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:06.800 disclosed this to the council and the council unanimously approved her contract that includes, 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:14.320 that doesn't preclude her from being a member of a board and does allow for her to use 00:08:14.320 --> 00:08:20.480 city funds for professional dues and membership. I think, I mean, it's kind of in the best interest 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:32.240 of the city to allow participation for professional development. So I mean, to me, I'll stop there. 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:37.120 I mean, to me, I mean, I think we're doing the right thing by reviewing this, but I don't really 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:44.320 think the way the ordinance was written was for this type of, you know, to prevent this type of 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:51.520 activity. I mean, I think this is doing the right thing by asking for us to issue an opinion on this. 00:08:51.520 --> 00:08:57.440 I agree with that also, just unless there's some kind of 00:08:57.440 --> 00:09:02.480 scenario somebody can come up with it would see that it would be any kind of 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:08.160 conflict of interest, but I couldn't think of one. So yeah, I mean, I don't think this 00:09:08.160 --> 00:09:14.080 specifically is if she had to go before the city to try to get more money to give to them. I mean, 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:19.920 I think that might get us in the realm of maybe a conflict of interest, but since this was things 00:09:19.920 --> 00:09:24.400 that enter contract, the city has said they're going to pay for it. And then they also approved 00:09:24.400 --> 00:09:29.680 the budget, which included paying for this. I just don't think there's, there's a problem. 00:09:29.680 --> 00:09:40.560 I think we're all on the same page. So I guess to answer your question, we'll say yes, by the 00:09:40.560 --> 00:09:48.800 ordinance, you are, you're an at large member of this association. And then, but number two, 00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:54.800 you, the city approved your contract that they would pay for all these things. 00:09:54.800 --> 00:10:01.200 And they approved the budget in which we would pay, they would pay for all these things. And 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:07.520 under the sex under, you don't fall under deliberations or conflict of interest violation 00:10:07.520 --> 00:10:12.320 because it was part of the budget. So we don't have a conflict of interest. Does that sound 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:18.240 about right? Yeah. Can you think of anything that would be a conflict of interest for participating 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:25.040 in that organization? Plus being not in this instance, nothing comes up with a city that would 00:10:25.040 --> 00:10:32.160 anything from city attorney's office? I'm not here to give any ethics opinions. 00:10:33.520 --> 00:10:39.040 Okay. All right. Well, I'm not sure what you're hearing. You're not even going to advise this. 00:10:39.040 --> 00:10:45.840 I'm here as a prolegarian for this. Okay. All right. Okay. So I think we have it and I'll just 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:50.800 write something up and I'll send it to Chris. Is there anything? I don't, that was the only thing 00:10:50.800 --> 00:11:01.520 on the agenda, right? So we'll need a motion. Oh, okay. That's right. Okay. So can I get a 00:11:01.520 --> 00:11:08.240 motion to write an advisory opinion as we just discussed? I'll make that motion. All right. 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:13.440 Motion and a second. Okay. All in favor of writing an advisory opinion of what we've 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:20.640 discussed today, say aye. Aye. Motion is approved. And now is there anything else? 00:11:20.640 --> 00:11:27.760 All right. Well, then I'll adjourn. Thank you for your time.