Durango city councilors have bumped heads in recent months. They have filed ethics complaints against each other and accused each other of code of conduct violations.
The alleged code of ethics violations have cost the city thousands of dollars to resolve, with no actual violations being found. More recently, city councilors have asked the city’s Board of Ethics to render judgment on an alleged code of conduct violation involving a fellow city councilor.
The Board of Ethics drew a line.
Instead of rendering a decision on whether a city councilor has violated the code of conduct, the ethics board is drafting recommendations for an improved code of conduct that will be overseen by City Council.
In other words, City Council will have to police its own code of conduct. Yet, the Board of Ethics will continue to oversee ethical complaints and has made recommendations on how to adjust the code of ethics.
During a meeting last week, Board of Ethics members said City Council should govern itself.
Laurie Meininger, ethics board member, said everyone has their own understanding of what ideas like teamwork, dependability and respect actually mean. It is up to City Council as a body to find agreement about what defines those values and how they should be upheld.
“We felt like it was not the role of the Board of Ethics to define for City Council, or the city in general, necessarily, what the (appropriate) behavior looks like,” she said.
The Board of Ethics suggested that City Council meet after every election cycle to refine its code of conduct agreement with input from new councilors. That way, every councilor is on the same page about expectations. And each councilor will be expected to sign the agreement, affirming they understand and will adhere to the guidelines they helped make.
Mayor Barbara Noseworthy, who did not seek reelection and is ending her term this month, said in an interview on Friday she is optimistic that with some fine-tuning to the ethics boards’ recommendations, the new City Council will be in a good position to set expectations and hold members accountable.
She said she appreciates the work of the ethics board, which has been busy during the last two years.
Councilor Bosmans filed two ethics complaints against Councilor Kim Baxter in 2021 and 2022 that were ultimately dismissed. He filed another ethics complaint against an unnamed councilor in February. Two former city councilors filed an ethics complaint against Noseworthy in 2021, which was also dismissed. And on March 28, councilors Noseworthy, Baxter, Youssef and Jessika Buell agreed to file an ethics complaint about another councilor – presumably Bosmans, who said the complaint was about him.
“The council and the board of ethics are on a good path forward to improve the whole process and to make it more functional,” Baxter said.
She said the city’s ethics code was rewritten in 2017, but has not been used much. But with more frequent ethics complaints and conduct concerns in the last two years, flaws in the ethics code have become more obvious.
Placing responsibility for councilor conduct disputes on City Council itself and refining the city’s code of ethics are “fabulous” decisions, she said. And allowing the new City Council to define vague feel-good statements like “be respectful” in its own code of conduct will be “very beneficial” to future councils, she said.
Improvements she wants to see in the code of ethics include a more traditional mediation process in which two or more parties reach an agreement to settle a dispute. Currently, any mediated agreements must be approved by the board of ethics, she said. Additionally, there isn’t any middle ground for certain ethics complaints – either a violation occurred or it didn’t – and subjects eligible for mediation should be clearly defined.
Pat Hall, ethics board member, gave an example of each kind of ethics complaint. A councilor voting based on kickbacks he or she receives from a contract is a clear ethics violation. But an ethics complaint about one councilor intimidating another could be more of a misunderstanding than intentional intimidation.
“Sometimes there's a misunderstanding of that interaction,” she said. “And that might be something, depending on the facts, where the board of ethics might suggest mediation with a neutral mediator.”
Bosmans said on Friday City Council places a lot of pressure on the Board of Ethics, and while he thinks its recommended changes are beneficial, he is uncertain how well they will assist City Council in the long-term.
“I'm really appreciative of the efforts and the work that the Board of ethics does,” he said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
