Tallahassee’s Independent Ethics Board is proposing revisions to the city’s ethics code that would once and for all explicitly put all city boards — including its own members and those who serve on citizens advisory committees — under its jurisdiction.
The proposed ordinance, as approved by the Ethics Board during its last meeting April 21, would expand the definition of a public official to include members of any city board, commission, committee or similar body regardless of how they’re appointed.
Under the city’s ethics code as currently written, members of city boards aren’t considered public officials unless they are appointed by city commissioners.
The move would settle a long-standing difference of opinion between the Ethics Board, which has maintained that members of citizens advisory boards come under its jurisdiction, and the City Attorney’s Office, which believes otherwise.
If city commissioners approve the changes, it would mean Ethics Board oversight would extend to members of various citizens advisory committees and the entire Ethics Board, a seven-member body with only one member appointed by city commissioners and the rest by outside entities.
“This essentially captures everyone,” said John Reid, counsel for the Ethics Board, during its April meeting.
Meanwhile, the Ethics Board is set to consider another proposed ordinance that would expand abstention requirements beyond city commissioners to cover all members of any city voting board. The measure, which the Ethics Board will consider on Tuesday, May 19, means all city board members would have to leave the room when they abstain from a vote.
The proposals grew out of the Ethics Board’s discussion and the ultimate dismissal of an ethics complaint filed by former City Commissioner Dot Inman-Johnson against Bugra Demirel, the owner of SoMo Walls on South Monroe Street and a member of the CRA’s citizens advisory committee.
The complaint accused Demirel of violating the ethics code when he recused himself from a Jan. 12 vote involving the SoMo Walls mural project but didn’t leave the room and participated the discussion.
Demirel maintains he did not participate in the discussion and the debate. In a text to the Democrat he said he only “clarified a question when asked surrounding what was included into project budget when it was revised.”
The vote involved a $30,000 CRA appropriation to the Knight Creative Communities Institute for giant painted murals at SoMo Walls, which were recently unveiled. Demirel put up an additional $30,000 toward the project, which the CRA approved Jan. 28 after a thumbs up from the CAC.
In February, the Ethics Board voted to dismiss the complaint for legal insufficiency. In a legal analysis, John Reid, counsel for the Ethics Board, wrote that Demirel was subject to the city’s ethics code and the jurisdiction of the Ethics Board because of his membership on the citizens advisory committee.
However, he said Demirel wasn’t required to leave the room during the CAC meeting because abstention requirements to do so, which go beyond state law, only applied to city commissioners.
‘That’s healthy debate’
In a legal memo prepared for the Ethics Board’s March 17 meeting, Reid opined that the Ethics Board has jurisdiction over the Community Redevelopment Agency’s citizens advisory committee through the city charter, which calls for an ethics code that covers members of “any boards” of the city.
The ethics code grew out of a citizen-led charter amendment that passed overwhelmingly in 2014. It prohibits public officials and employees from misusing their positions for special gain and certain covered individuals from accepting gifts.
City Attorney Amy Toman prepared her own legal memo the same date arguing that members of the CRA’s CAC “are not subject” to the Ethics Board’s jurisdiction.
She wrote that the CRA is a public agency that exists “separate from the city of Tallahassee,” and quoted statutes that say members of the CRA are “separate, distinct and independent” from the governing body of a municipality.
Toman recited the city’s position in person during the Ethics Board’s April meeting.
“It’s nothing personal,” she said. “I just don’t agree.”
She added that citizen board members are volunteers and that she was unsure whether they were ever told they fall under the ethics code “probably because there was an assumption that they were not.”
But Ethics Board Chair Patrick Kelly said that was “irrelevant” and that it was a board member’s responsibility “to be ethical all the time in whatever capacity you’re serving.”
“My readings say they are covered under state but I believe they’re covered by us, too,” he said. “We can have that disagreement. That’s healthy debate.”
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: City ethics board wants more authority over city officials, boards
Reporting by Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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