Ethics Commission

NORWICH ETHICS COMMISSION MEETING Monday August 9, 2010 5:00 P.M. Room 210, City Hall Regular Members Present: Joseph Sastre Wayne Rosenfield Robert Davidson Members Absent: Rabbi Charles Arian Tamara Lanier Alternates Present: Marcia Marien (seated as full member) Alternates Absent: Ira Misenheimer Others Present: Michael Gannon-Norwich Bulletin Attorney Michael Driscoll-Corporation Counsel 1. Call to Order Vice-Chair, Robert Davidson called the August 9th, 2010 meeting of the Ethics Commission to order at 5:05 p.m. 2. Determination of Quorum It was determined a quorum was present. 3. Approval of Minutes a. Minutes of July 12th, 2010 Motion to approve as corrected (remove Mike Driscoll from list of attendees as he was not present) J. Sastre, 2nd M. Marien, motion carried unanimously. Ethics Commission 8/9/10 page –2- 4. Citizen Comment NONE 5. Correspondence 6. Old Business M. Marien asked that a copy of the final version of the advisory opinion be distributed to Commission members. 7. New Business a. Discussion of recommendations to the City Council for amendments to Code of Ethics. J. Sastre pointed out the difficulty of not disclosing the name and position of a person requesting an advisory opinion. He feels that a recommendation be made to the Council to remove the sentence in Section 2-56 Advisory Opinions which states the above B. Davidson feels that the reason to withhold names would be to protect people and that may not be necessary for an advisory opinion request. If the entire proceeding is public and the press is here, the name and position of the person is public knowledge anyway even if the Commission does not give this information in their final opinion. The Commission needs to distinguish in what instances it would put the person requesting the opinion at risk. It could be left to the requester’s discretion or left to the Commission’s discretion. M. Marien asked what the procedure is that the City Council would have to go through to make amendments to the ordinance. The suggestions would be put in writing for the City Council and presented, then there would be an amendment made to the ordinance if it passed the vote of the council. M. Marien suggested starting a list and presenting to the Council after the Commission had gone through a few more proceedings and had more suggestions. F.O.I. regulations may prohibit not disclosing the requester’s name. The original Ethics Review Committee in 2008 sent a report to the City Council with their recommendations which stated the procedures for the advisory opinions be entirely public. Attorney Driscoll stated that the thought is that an employee may not want their name disclosed before an opinion is issued. The information becomes FOIable at certain points. The advisory opinion as a draft is not FOIable. The final Ethics Commission 8/9/10 page –3- version is FOIable once the opinion has been issued. The original request is FOIable, but the name can be re-dacted. If a person is requesting an advisory opinion that is not for themselves or actions they are contemplating, then Attorney Driscoll suggested treating that as a complaint. J. Sastre asked that Attorney Driscoll look at the request for advisory opinion section and give the Commission some clarification as to the options. B. Davidson stated that the Commission has two goals: to encourage an open procedure and to protect the inquirer. M. Marien: Fraudulent concealment wording may need to be revised. Attorney Driscoll clarified that fraudulent concealment would be intentional and on-going conduct on the part of the complainant to conceal the activity. This is where the wording came from. B. Davidson asked if some procedure while technically legal is so obscure that it prohibits open access, could the Commission rule on that? Attorney Driscoll stated that the Commission’s mission is to address specific complaints not procedure or law. W. Rosenfield suggested that this should be an on-going discussion. 8. Other 9. Adjournment Motion to adjourn, M. Marien , 2nd J. Sastre, motion carried, meeting adjourned at 6:09 p.m.