The Durango Board of Ethics no longer has jurisdiction over city councilors because of an ordinance passed earlier this month that changes who is considered a “city officer.”
The City Council on Aug. 1 passed the ordinance, which excludes the mayor and city councilors from said group of officials. The change in law effectively renders a pending public hearing about an ethics complaint lodged against Councilor Olivier Bosmans “moot,” city attorney Mark Morgan said.
It also made other City Council matters before the ethics board kaput, city spokesman Tom Sluis said in a text message to The Durango Herald.
The new ordinance also marks the first time in 2½ years the Board of Ethics has no pending matters before it, Sluis said. A public hearing before the ethics board for Bosmans was tentatively scheduled for later this month, but it will no longer take place.
The ordinance was passed to address a conflict of interest involving elected officials overseeing appointed board members, Sluis said.
In March, former councilors Kim Baxter and Barbara Noseworthy, current Councilor Jessika Buell and current Mayor Melissa Youssef agreed to file an ethics complaint against Bosmans. They said by participating in a Library Advisory Board meeting Bosmans is not an assigned liaison to, he may have violated the city’s code of ethics.
Buell and Youssef later withdrew their names from the complaint. Buell declined to comment on why she removed her name from the complaint in a phone call with the Herald. Youssef did not say why she removed her name from the complaint.
Bosmans denied any wrongdoing.
In a June Board of Ethics meeting, board members weighed their options during a review of the complaint. Some board members were reluctant to grant Bosmans a public hearing, which he requested, but other members noted the city ethics code requires such requests from councilors to be honored.
In a response to the Board of Ethics’ discussion, Bosmans said in an interview the Board of Ethics is well aware that he attended the Library Advisory Board meeting as a private resident, not an acting councilor.
“I only stated facts about the funding and budget sources (and how the library functions),” he said.
Sluis said the law change removing ethics board oversight of City Council is part of a “global review of the entire city code.”
“The specific change pertaining to the city ethics board means that the state independent ethics commission would handle these types of concerns involving city councilors moving forward,” he said.
Morgan said last month that it’s not a good practice to have appointed officials like ethics board members oversee those who appointed them.
Councilors have used the Board of Ethics to try to resolve infighting in the past when really they are accountable to their constituents, he said. The city charter outlines a recall process for councilors who don’t belong in public office because of their conduct.
And, the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission has authority over all elected officials in the state, whether they are municipal leaders or the governor, he said.
When City Council approved the ethics code amendment last week, it wasn’t immediately clear whether the change would apply to pending cases before the ethics board.
Morgan told The Durango Herald last week that he advised the Board of Ethics at its Aug. 8 meeting that the change to the ethics code could retroactively apply to Bosmans’ public hearing and other pending matters involving City Council, as long as it was in the public’s best interest.
Morgan consulted with city councilors and the Board of Ethics, and a consensus was reached it would be in the public’s best interest to put past City Council conflicts behind them. He said ethics complaints have been costly in terms of time and money, and a public ethics hearing would have been very expensive.
“I think it’s significant for the first time in a couple years there’s nothing pending in front of the ethics board involving councilors,” he said.
cburney@durangoherald.com