I will now call the regular meeting to order at 525, 535, excuse me, PM on November 27th, 2023.
Thank you very much for your patience. And the first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
So now our items for consideration are, first of all, Ron Minquita is no longer here,
so we have to take note of that and be all sad. But he's very happy, so we're happy for him.
Okay, so item number two on our agenda is to consider approval of the minutes for the November 27th, 2023 meeting.
I'll entertain a motion or discussion for these minutes.
I'll entertain a motion. Okay. And a second? I second. Great.
Committee member Hall. And then all in favor of approving the minutes? Aye.
Any opposed? Any abstentions? I'm not paying you. From committee member Woods.
Welcome, by the way. Thank you.
Alrighty, so that's that. And then motion carried with one abstention.
Item number two B is to hold a discussion to consider approval of the 2024 Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting calendar.
I will now entertain a motion or discussion from the board regarding the calendar.
The red marks are holidays and the blue marks are proposed CBA meetings.
And they are generally the fourth Monday of every month.
But if there's any dates you all wish to change, we could do so.
I might want to change next to November because that's my birthday.
Okay. So it might not be available.
Oh yeah, that's Thanksgiving week two. Can we move that to the 18th?
Yeah, why don't we move it back to the 18th?
So, I will say this also that UNT now has instituted a full week off for Thanksgiving. Is the 21st Thanksgiving or the 28th?
It looks like the 28th. Okay, so the 18th should work out fine.
From that standpoint.
Yeah, that seems good.
I don't believe we have any others adjacent to holidays like that.
May was moved up a week due to the holiday on the 27th and December was moved up a week due to Christmas.
Thank you.
Looks like January was moved up a week.
Well, that is the fourth Monday.
It's usually been the last Monday. It's been notated as the last Monday of the month.
Not the fourth Monday.
Always up until this very moment, it's been the last Monday of the month.
So I see April is also not the last Monday.
And neither is July.
We have a lot of five week months this year, this upcoming year.
It's in the five or six years, I've been on this board for a long time, either as an alternate or as a member.
And it's always been the last Monday or moved. It's either the last Monday or moved.
So it's odd for it to be the fourth Monday because it's never been described as such.
In my experience, that has been our calendar for the past couple of years.
We've set it based on the fourth Monday, but if the board would like to change that, we could certainly adjust those.
I don't know that it matters because we can move the meetings as need be, but you might want to check some records just because I think maybe before the last couple of years it was described as the last Monday.
And that's been the memory. And there may be a reason for it, which I wouldn't know.
So do we have a motion to approve the calendar as amended, moving to November to the 18th?
Any five motion?
A second?
A second.
Thank you.
I think I agree. Thank you so much.
And all in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Any abstentions?
All right. Now we have a work session, item 3A, to receive training and hold a discussion regarding the city of Denton Code of Ordinances, Chapter 2, Article 11, Ethics.
Hello, I'm Madison Rocha, a Denton City Auditor. I am required by this ordinance to give you this training every year.
If you've been on the board before, you may have taken it. It used to be two hours long, and it is now 20 minutes. You're welcome.
Thank you.
Anyway, it should be pretty brief. What we're going to cover today will be the ethical expectations laid out by the city's ethics ordinance, the ordinance's mandates and prohibitions, or what it requires, how city officials subject to the ordinance, which includes all of y'all, can request clarification on its application, and a quick overview of what happens if an ethics complaint is submitted against you as a city official.
I'll stop periodically if y'all have questions, but I'm going to go pretty quickly. So dive right in.
To begin, the city of Denton's ethics ordinance was adopted in 2018 and was most recently amended in 2023. The ethics code is intended to foster an environment of integrity for those that serve the city of Denton and its residents by ensuring that decision makers provide responsible stewardship of city resources and assets and providing behavioral guidelines and requirements.
The key goal of the ethics ordinance is to further the public's trust in those who govern their community.
More specifically, the ethics ordinance outlines six aspirational expectations. These expectations cannot be used as the basis of an ethics complaint, but they are intended to guide city officials in carrying out their duties.
These include conducting yourself in a manner that fosters public trust, performing your public duties with personal and organizational integrity, avoiding behavior that might call your motives into question and erode public confidence, placing the interests and concerns of Denton's residents above your own, valuing honesty, trustworthiness, diligence, objectivity, fairness, due process, efficiency, and prudence, and balancing transparency with the duty to protect personal privacy and preserve any confidential information that you've been trusted with.
While the rest of the training will focus on specific behaviors that city officials must comply with, this is the most important section of the ethics ordinance. If you ever find yourself questioning if a specific action or inaction might be ethical, first ask yourself if it would align with these expectations.
It's also important to realize that these expectations are not only focused on the way things are, but also on how they appear. A city official has a position of privilege within their community that they must respect. Serving your community as a city official is an honor that requires integrity and dedication.
In general, you can think about an ethics code as a stoplight. In some instances, the code clearly prohibits specific behaviors or creates a red light. However, in other areas, the code creates broader prohibitions or yellow lights.
Yellow lights communicate that a city official should thoughtfully and cautiously consider if the action or inaction is ethical based on the city's expectations as they proceed. Throughout the presentation, I'll be calling out which parts of the code are red lights versus yellow lights to help provide guidance.
Now we've covered the basics of ethical expectations and general guidance. You'll have any questions? I know that was quick, but that's a short section, but we'll keep going if there are no questions.
Great.
So, beginning with the mandates, the ethics ordinance requires that city officials disclose certain business relationships if they are relevant to a pending matter. Specifically, if a business entity with a pending matter is owned by a city official's partner,
the city official must disclose this relationship to the city secretary and the city auditor, that's me, at least one business day before the meeting where the pending matter will be deliberated. All disclosures will be provided to the relevant body before the deliberations.
This disclosure requirement is a yellow light in the ethics code, even though city officials are allowed to deliberate on these matters for the code, it calls out that there may be a risk that this type of business interests may receive unfair treatment from this related city official.
In addition, it requires that city officials comply with any financial disclosures required by Texas state law and that city officials report any person that they know has violated the ethics ordinance. These mandates are red lights and not reporting a known violation of the ordinance is itself considered to be a violation.
So, any questions about this? I know that the kind of business disclosure piece is a little complicated and confusing.
It is like a business partner, and it does have certain specific definitions that I can give you after we're done if you would like them.
Yeah, it's more like a business partner in this particular instance.
I guess I do have one. You know, given that after properly disclosing that there is a vested interest that the city official has a relationship with this business, and they're still on, I guess, the pending matter.
I mean, so they don't have to recuse themselves if there is some relation with that business? There is this specific type of relationship. They are not required to recuse, but they are required to disclose that so everyone else is aware of that relationship.
Okay. Just for this part, though. Other questions? Yes. Are there any questions? Do we contact you or do we contact our administrative department? We contact you. Okay, thank you.
I'm specifically not empowered to do anything with ethics.
So, now we're going to talk about prohibitions, beginning with conflicts of interest. So, ethical best practices suggest that a city official recuse from deliberating on a pending matter.
If they or their relative have a personal or economic interest in a business entity or property that's not shared with the general public.
This general guidance is a yellow light that's intended to draw attention to the risk of conflicts of interest. However, I have to note that while this is good guidance for city officials, this actual general prohibition is not included in the ethics ordinance.
Denton's ordinance does include some red lights and specifically defines the following as conflicts of interest.
Owning 5% or more of a business entity's voting shares or stock, owning $600 or more of a business entity's fair market value, owning $600 or more of the fair market value of real property, receiving $600 or more in income from a business entity, serving on the board of directors or as an officer of a business entity or a not-profit, or having solicited, received, or accepted an offer of employment from a business entity or person in the last 12 months.
So if you have a conflict of interest as defined on the slide with the pending matter on the agenda, you are required to recuse yourself from the discussion and submit an affidavit of abstention to me, which you can do so through the staff here.
And then a pending matter includes an application seeking approval or authorization, proposals to enter into a contract for a case involving the city that is or may be before a civil, criminal, or administrative tribunal. So only if there's a pending matter does these conflicts of interest apply.
Further, it's a violation of the ordinance for a current city official to represent a person, group, or entity before a city board or commission for compensation.
This prohibition also applies to former city officials for one year after termination of their official duties.
Similarly, former city officials are prohibited from performing compensated work on a city contract or arrangement if they substantially participated in the negotiation, award, or administration of the contract unless that participation was limited to deliberations.
Any questions about conflicts of interest? Yes.
So if I work for Denton ISD that counts as a conflict of interest with matters that may involve Denton ISD. If you receive more than $600 of income from them, yes.
Other questions on this part?
Spouses and divorced spouses. This is a big thing in Denton. This is how they do it.
How does that work?
I don't believe divorced spouses count.
But yes, if you are legally, or you have a spouse, I believe that is considered, you're not allowed to have, if your spouse receives $600 in income, you're not supposed to vote on that matter.
But yes, I don't think divorced spouses are included in that.
Other questions?
Next, the ethics ordinance prohibits a city official or their relative from accepting any gift that might reasonably influence a city official in discharging their official duties.
This is a general prohibition that acts as a yellow light for city officials.
The ordinance does also include gift-related red lights. Specifically, a city official cannot accept a single gift valued more than $50 or multiple gifts with a total value of more than $200.
In general, a gift is considered to be anything of monetary value, such as cash, property, services, meals, entertainment, or travel-related expenses.
If a gift is accepted, the city official may remedy the violation by promptly donating it or reimbursing the gift-giver the actual or fair market value of the gift.
If a gift is accepted, the city official must disclose the acceptance and the remedy by filing a disclosure with me, the city auditor.
The ordinance does allow certain exceptions to the gift prohibition, meaning that these are considered green lights, which include lawful campaign contributions, expenses related to a city official's travel to a conference or other training event that's connected to the city,
expenses related to appearances at nonprofit or community events related to city business, complimentary attendance at fundraising events or hospitality functions, complimentary or promotional copies of trade publications or clothing items, or gifts that are given due to a personal, familial, or professional relationship regardless of the city official's city-related duties.
So any items received that fall under one of the exceptions do not need to be disclosed. However, you may choose to disclose it if you would like to. Questions about gifts?
Yes, so the professional relationship could be real estate?
I suppose so.
Any other questions?
Next, it is a violation of the ordinance for a city official to misuse the influence or information gained due to their official city position.
Specifically, a city official may not use their influence to secure special privileges or treatment for a person, group, or business organization beyond what is normally available, or to imply that they can do such things.
While this is a specific prohibition, it's a yellow light as it's not meant to prohibit a city official from providing individuals, groups, or businesses with information on how city processes work so that they can more easily access normally available services.
For that reason, city officials should proceed cautiously and thoughtfully when trying to help the public with specific concerns. Specifically, city officials should be cautious when stating what they can do to ensure a concern is addressed.
Further, a city official may not state or imply that they are acting as a representative of the city unless they have been authorized to do so by the city council, and it is a violation of the ordinance for a city official, either current or former, to use confidential information gained through their official capacity to advance the personal or private financial interests of themselves or anyone else.
These are red lights as there are no instances where misrepresenting yourself as an authorized city representative or using confidential information for personal or private interests with the ethical purpose ordinance. Questions about this are.
Last prohibition, it's a violation of the ordinance for a city official to abuse the city's resources or the power or privileges granted by their official position. Specifically, a city official should not use, request, or allow the use of city resources such as facilities, personnel, equipment, software, or staff time for private purposes, including political, except to the extent that those are available to other residents.
While this is a specific prohibition, it is also a yellow light, as it does not have clearly defined thresholds and there are instances where a city official can ethically use city resources, such as renting a city facility at the publicly available place.
On the other hand, it is a violation of the ordinance for a city official to harass or discriminate against a person based on their ethnicity, race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, or religion.
It is also a violation to interfere with any city related criminal or administrative investigation, including persuading or forcing someone else to withhold their cooperation.
These are red lights as there are no instances where harassment, discrimination, or interfering with an investigation would be considered ethical behavior for the ethics ordinance. Questions about this?
So now that you have an understanding of the expectations, mandates, and prohibitions outlined in the ordinance, if you ever come upon a situation where you need additional guidance, you have a few options.
So first, if you need direction helping to find a section of the ordinance related to a particular situation or an answer about how to submit disclosures or complaints, you can reach out to me.
Second, if you have a personal attorney, they may be able to provide you with an interpretation of the ethics ordinance, help you decide whether to recuse yourself or not in a given situation, but city legal's office like Hillary, they can't help you, sorry.
Finally, you can also request that the Board of Ethics issue an advisory opinion, which is intended to answer a question about compliance with the ethics ordinance in a particular situation.
The biggest advantage of an advisory opinion is that a city official may use it as an affirmative defense to a submitted ethics complaint if they relied upon it in good faith.
To receive an advisory opinion, a city official must submit the request in writing to me, the city auditor, including relevant details about the situation in question.
I will then communicate the request to the Board of Ethics chair who assigns it to a panel of three Board of Ethics members for review. The panel then has 30 days to issue the advisory opinion once the request is received. It doesn't typically take that long, usually like 10 to 15 days.
So any questions about advisory opinions?
Finally, the Board of Ethics' primary function is to process ethics complaints. There are four phases of the ethics complaint process that I'll briefly run through.
Additional information about the ethics complaint process is available on the city's Board of Ethics webpage, or you can ask me about it.
First, initiation. During this period, an individual submits an ethics complaint using the prescribed form to the city auditor.
The complaint form should be accompanied by any evidence, such as images, videos, or documentation that the complainant has to support their allegations and must be sworn to in front of a notary.
The city auditor then determines if the ethics complaint is administratively complete but does not make any judgment on the complaint's merits.
If a complaint is accepted as a copy, a copy is forwarded to the complainant, the respondent, and the Board of Ethics chair who assigns it to a preliminary assessment panel.
During the preliminary assessment phase, a panel of three Board of Ethics members reviews the submitted ethics complaint and determines if it is actionable or baseless.
A complaint is actionable if, on its face, the behavior alleged in the complaint would constitute a violation of the ordinance.
The panel may also recommend that a hearing be held to determine if a complaint is frivolous instead of determining if it is actionable or baseless.
The outcome of the preliminary assessment is communicated to the complainant and respondent by the city auditor.
If the complaint is determined to be baseless, the process stops, though the complainant may submit a written appeal within 10 business days, which will initiate the hearing phase.
During the hearing phase, the Board of Ethics schedules an evidentiary hearing and may request additional documentary evidence or issue subpoenas to require individuals to testify.
The complainant must attend and testify at the hearing and may also present any additional evidence that they've gathered.
In addition, the respondent may provide testimony and evidence for the Board's consideration.
Both the complainant and respondent have a right to be represented by a legal counsel or another person at the evidentiary hearing.
Based on this evidentiary hearing, the Board will determine if a violation of the ordinance has occurred, and if so, they may issue a sanction.
Once the Board has decided on the ethics complaint, the complainant and respondent both have five business days to submit any new evidence and request for reconsideration in writing with the city auditor.
I will then forward that request to the Board of Ethics chair who will review it, the reconsideration request, and will unilaterally determine if a new hearing is warranted based on the new evidence.
If during the evidentiary hearing, the Board of Ethics finds that a violation of the ordinance has occurred, they may issue one of four sanctions based on the city officials' perceived intent and the seriousness of the violation generally illustrated that decision process on the slide.
I'm not going to go through them, and then if the Board decides to impose a sanction, the city official will be notified within 10 days that that's occurred by the city auditor.
Any questions about any of that, I can go back on the slides, but hopefully you'll never have to go through that.
Could you actually go back one slide? Yep. Sorry, I was looking at the flowchart.
You want the other one or this one? That one.
Cool. All right.
That's all I got. Oh, I do have to have you sign something.
Do we keep a public database of Board of Ethics rulings?
Every advisory opinion that they've issued has been is public.
I don't know if there's a public database.
Are there typically mainly advisory opinions here?
When this first started, everybody went crazy and was happy.
There were political opponents, they went nuts.
It's pretty entertaining.
Yeah, this is the new process for this, which I hope was less painful.
What was really excellent was that the frivolous ones ended up helping the people when there were campaigns.
So it's a backfire. Yeah, I think it was well streamlined.
Thank you so much.
Can people ask you how best to frame their advice on business to not, you know, the people that shouldn't be advising this?
Yes, including items.
Once everybody's had a chance to sign.
Does the board have any other business to discuss?
One reminder.
So we do have a case dating to come before you all in December.
So I believe Lacey sent out an email before Thanksgiving.
I can't remember the date to survey the group to see if December 18th is still a workable date.
So if you don't mind shooting her an email back and letting her know if you were available that evening.
She sent a range of dates that began with the 11th.
And that is the only one I can attend.
The 18th is on your calendar is the regular meeting for December.
We can adjust that if we will not be able to achieve more on that regular meeting day.
So the sooner you all can let us know, the sooner we can try to look for those alternatives.
And that's all in Lacey's email range.
Yes. So hopefully it works out.
We can be missing one person.
So do you still need the alternative dates even if you can make the 18th?
If the 18th works, that's our preference.
That's the published date on the calendar. If we can't achieve more on that date, then we just wanted to put you all notice that we may send out a survey to see what other dates we could possibly achieve for.
She already did it.
We just need to know the 18th.
She actually did. She sent a range there.
Can you make the 18th? If not, can you make some dates between the 6th?
Yeah.
Unless we have a zoom option in general, I don't think we do.
We have to have six for any sort of decision to be made.
ZBA is a really high level form.
Sevens would be great. Sevens are the number that we need.
Yeah, because sixes are how we get to see it.
Sixes are how we get to see it.
I already responded about the 18th.
Awesome. Thank you. That's awesome.
Thank you, everybody.
And that's it. And the meeting is adjourned at 6.02 PM.
Cool. I guess I motion to end the meeting here.
Do we need a motion in a second or do we just adjourn?
No. Chair has discretion to adjourn.
All right.
Less than 30 minutes.
All right. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you all.