New Ethics Ordinances Approved by Council’s Rules Committee

The Concord City Council’s Rules Committee approved two new charter amendments that would establish a Code of Ethics and a Board of Ethics to investigate claims against appointed and elected public officials. The committee approved the ordinances by a 3-1 vote.

The Code of Ethics “establishes guidelines for the ethical standards of conduct” for officials, requiring them to “act in the best interest of the City.” It creates two specific definitions: An “actual” conflict of interest, when an official allegedly does something that benefits them, their business, or family members, in a financial manner; and an “apparent” conflict of interest, which calls into question the objectivity or independence of an official, but not in a financial way.

The code also states that elected officials shall not represent private interests before any city agency, governing body, or land use board, and bans any elected officials from participating in legal action where the city is involved. An officer - which is defined as anyone appointed by the mayor, city council, or city manager, to a board, commission, or committee - would be required to disclose any conflicts before representing a private entity before a city body.

Gifts and favors are also addressed in the code. Elected and appointed officials would be banned from accepting any gift or multiple gifts valued at more than $250 in total, during in a calendar year. Any gift valued at more than $50 each, would need to be reported to the city clerk and be accessible to the public and the press.

The Board of Ethics would consist of five people who are not officers or elected officials representing the city of Concord. The city solicitor would act as legal counsel and would be a non-voting, ex-officio member. The mayor would appoint three board members and two would be appointed by the city manager.

Making ethics sausage

Members of the Rules Committee – at-large City Councilor Dan St. Hilaire, and Ward Councilors Liz Blanchard, Amanda Grady, and William Stetson – spent a little more than 1.5 hours with City Solicitor Paul Cavanaugh, going line by line through the proposed ordinances. The two biggest issues of contention were whether appointed officials could represent private interests before city agencies and the gifts provisions.

Stetson said he had problems with people on the Planning Board representing private interests that come before the board.

“Even though they disclose it, it’s a small club - the people on those boards - and I don’t like it,” he said.

St. Hilaire countered that many of the members of the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Adjustment had a lot of experience in planning and zoning matters that would be otherwise missing if they weren’t on the boards.

“Some of them have too much experience,” Stetson countered back.

St. Hilaire said no one would serve on boards where they had expertise if they couldn’t represent other members of the public.

“Nobody in that field would sign up to be a member,” he said.

Stetson said so long as members without a professional background in planning or zoning followed the ordinances or asked legal or planning staffers for opinions on issues when needed, anyone could serve on the boards. He felt it was inappropriate for a member of a board or commission to leave the board for one part of the meeting, have an alternate seated for the issue, and then return back to the board, to make judgments on others.

St. Hilaire stated the meetings were public and televised and he hadn’t seen any abuse or complaints that would demonstrate a problem with members recusing themselves due to previous or current work on a project. He said they do have to follow the law and follow reasoning.

“This leads to a question of whether or not it is open government,” Stetson said. “It’s open, yeah, they have to disclose. But I still think that when you have a family affair going on … and that’s what the Planning Board is, it’s a family of people that sit there and listen to all these things – same thing with the ZBA – they sit there and listen to the things and get together and make a decision.“

“They’re all based on fact and law,” St. Hilaire responded.

Stetson, however, said there were plenty of residents who could be named to the boards and not ever have any conflict or a need to recuse themselves due to a conflict. He said there were retirees and others in the business community who never get asked to serve.

On the gifts provision, both Blanchard and Stetson felt it should be lowered from $250 to $150 and $100, respectively. Grady and St. Hilaire supported keeping the provision at $250, noting that some ceremonial items given to the mayor, over a period of time, like a hockey jersey or a meal at a conference or talk, could easily reach more than $250 a year. After some discussion, Stetson made a motion to lower it to $100 and it failed by a 2-2 vote.

In the end, Stetson was the single vote against recommending the ordinances proposals.

St. Hilaire said the full council would consider the matter at its meeting in August or September.