Ethics Loopholes from the Concord City Council

Having sat in on the recent Local Government Center hearing and being reminded the role ethics can play when formulating a decision, I thought this would be a good time to revisit our city’s ethics code.

Our city recently enacted a - Title 1, Chapter 1, Article 1-6 in the City Code of Ordinances. There has been much discussion and argument over this ordinance. Over the composition of the board, who appoints the board and in the way the ordinance has been written. I feel there are two glaring loopholes in this ordinance 

Article 1-6-6 Gifts and Favors from the Ethics Ordinance States: “An officer or elected official shall not within a one year period accept any gift valued over two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00) whether in the form of service, loan, thing or promise, or any other form from any person, firm, or corporation which to his or her knowledge is interested directly or indirectly in any manner whatsoever, in the business dealings with the City. Any gift over fifty dollars ($50.00) must be reported to the City Clerk.”

So let’s say that Company A has a bid with the city. No individual gift over $250.00 and no more then $250.00 in one year from Company A. So even though Company A is doing or going to do business with the city they can gift a Councilor up to $250.00 per year. And the Councilor has to report the money as a gift. Sounds okay on the surface, but why would we allow anyone doing business with the city, or wanting to do business with the city, to give any gifts to a city officer or councilor.

The ordinance continues: “Reimbursement for the cost of attending an event at which the officer or elected official is a speaker, member of a panel or guest shall not be considered a gift.”

And now let’s say Company A is hosting a golf tournament. The councilor is invited as a "guest" and the tournament just happens to be at Pebble Beach. Guess what, since this isn’t a gift there is no dollar limit and no reporting requirement. It doesn’t matter if the company is looking to bid on replacing a few windows for a few thousand dollars or selling the city a health insurance policy for all our city employees. The councilor gets to have a great golf outing and no one is the wiser.

We all know what money or a gift given for consideration to act in one’s favor is. It’s a bribe. Being a guest or a speaker or a panel member one must ask what was the motivation in inviting the city official. Motivation is a funny thing and it can be hard to pinpoint. But if you can’t answer definitively that the individual would have been invited if they weren’t a councilor, then it certainly smells like influence. And influencing or persuading someone to act in your favor is a bribe. So no matter how you dress this gift thing up and whether or not it is considered a gift it still looks and smells like a bow and lipstick on a sow. It stinks.

Oh yeah, here’s that last sentence to 1-6-6: “Gifts shall not include political contributions as defined in Section 1-3-6 of the City Code of Ordinances.” This ethics code has about as many teeth in it as the chickens in the city’s recently passed Keeping of Chickens as Pets ordinance.