Much of the media focus on last Tuesday’s City Council meeting focused on the wild back-and-forth over the alleged anti-semitic comments made by Councilmember Oscar de la Torre.
But the City Council also had a vote (Agenda, Item 14a) on whether or not the conduct rules that apply to city employees and members of the city’s volunteer commissions and boards should also apply to the City Council. The resolution, passed unanimously, provides a process for reporting, investigating, and resolving complaints. The video below begins at the start of the discussion.
“We’re not creating new policies for conduct,” explained City Manager Doug Sloan. “We’re taking policies that exist for staff and making them apply to Council.”
The resolution only applies to incidents that occur going forward, not anything that’s already happened.
Members were near unanimous in their support of the resolution, with Councilmember Caroline Torosis referring to it as a “no-brainer” and the focus of the questions and discussion focusing on how the rules could be enforced.
While this reform was passed unanimously, it follows a series of 4-3 votes rejecting various attempts at ethics reform. In September, the Council voted 4-3 against rules that would have prohibited Councilmembers from accepting gifts for council votes.
Earlier in the year, the Council also voted to reject ethics reforms for the Council, and refused to investigate closed session leaks. All of the rejections came on a 4-3 with Councilmembers Gleam Davis, Caroline Torosis and Jesse Zwick voting for the reforms/investigations and Mayor Phil Brock, Vice-Mayor Lana Negrete and Councilmembers Oscar de la Torre and Christine Parra voting against reforms/investigations.
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