Politics & Government

City Council Delays Vote on Conflict of Interest Policy

City officials have been reviewing a Conflict of Interest policy over the last few months since the Rye Golf Club investigation revealed that the former manager there allegedly had an egregious conflict of interest with a staffing agency he created in order to steal money from the membership.

 Officials were close to passing a new Conflict of Interest policy that would be implemented for public officials and select staff at their last city council meeting earlier this month but held off on the vote after Councilwoman Catherine Parker suggested the Ethics Board approve it first.

 Because the council intends to add two more members to the Board of Ethics, Parker said perhaps they should wait for that full new Board to consider and approve the conflict of interest form. That would delay the passage of the forms because the council would have to change the law to expand the Ethics Board, hold a public hearing on that change and then approve it. Then the board would need to meet and approve the conflict forms before the council could adopt them.

“I thought the whole purpose given the Rye Golf Club was we wanted to take a hard look and act quickly to change the law,” Mayor Douglas French said.

 He was hesitant to delay the process by waiting for the Ethics Board. Councilman Peter Jovanovich said that waiting for the Board could delay the process by six months.

Councilwoman Julie Killian agreed with Parker.

 “We’ve added responsibilities on the board and we think we need more people so we get a fresh set of eyes from the two new people who haven’t read this a thousand times,” City Councilwoman Julie Killian said.

 The council discussed passing only parts of the Conflict of Interest form but ultimately decided to wait and pass the entire packet together. The council will reconsider the Conflict of Interest Package at the next council meeting on July 10.

 The Conflict of Interest form would be filed yearly by the Mayor, City Council, Department Heads and Assistant Department Heads. Members of the City Boards, Committees and Commissions would not be required to sign the Conflict of Interest form but the Oath of Office card has been updated to note their responsibilities under the City Code of Ethics.

 Additionally, a new Conflict of Interest form will be added to the City bid packet to be included by all vendors submitting bids for City work as well as a Non-Collusion Statement for any Bid Specification prepared by the City or provided by an outside Vendor.

You can read all the new forms here.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here