Current and former Durango city councilors have filed unfounded ethics complaints against each other costing taxpayers thousands, according to information shared this week in a study session.
Councilor Olivier Bosmans filed two complaints against Councilor Kim Baxter last year, and former councilors filed one complaint against Mayor Barbara Noseworthy. All of the complaints have been dismissed after review by the Durango ethics board.
The city of Durango is reviewing how it handles internal complaints about ethics and code of conduct violations with the intent of streamlining how complaints are handled. Durango City Council met in a study session this week to review recommended changes.
Baxter and Noseworthy spoke of their frustrations in having to deal with ethics complaints and the process for dealing with such complaints during Tuesday’s study session.
In Baxter’s case, fellow councilor Bosmans filed two complaints against her alleging multiple ethics and conduct violations, she said.
“The first complaint was referred to as ‘being inappropriate’ by the board of ethics and the second one found that any concerns they might have had about my interpersonal relationship with Councilor Bosmans was in the interest of preventing him from harassing employees,” she said.
She said Bosmans asked city staff to perform tasks rather than working through City Manager José Madrigal, which would have been in line with the city’s code of conduct.
“One of them was filed in, I believe, October last year,” she said. “The other one was filed, I believe, in February last year. So over a time period of six months I was having to deal with this. I will say that makes it very, very difficult to have a good working relationship with another city councilor when they’ve filed baseless ethics complaints against you.”
Bosmans said the second complaint he filed against Baxter made it as far as mediation before being dismissed. The mediator told him certain issues within the code of ethics and code of conduct prevented the mediator from reaching a resolution to the dispute.
He said it is “interesting” that his complaint was important enough to involve a mediator and there is a “disconnect” between getting a mediator and dismissing the complaint.
“I think we put the board of ethics in a difficult situation because they don’t have the right tools to address that (disputes between councilors),” he said.
Bosmans said he takes issue with “dishonesty, manipulation and intimidation.”
“The process that I follow is you first address it with the person. And if that doesn’t change anything then you bring it up in a public meeting, which I also did,” he said. “And that didn’t change anything. And then the next step in that process is to bring it as a violation ... to the board of ethics as a complaint.”
He said the city of Durango has “structural issues,” and City Council is not showing focus in addressing them. He said the city’s inability to establish a temporary managed camp for the unhoused is an example.
He said he is “attacked” by other councilors during meetings for sharing his opinion or analysis on subjects where other councilors disagree. The council applies Robert’s Rules of Order, guidance for parliamentary procedures, but not all councilors abide by it or are trained in it, he said.
Noseworthy said she is concerned that people do not want to engage with each other to address problems before escalating to formal complaints.
“We have to talk to each other,” she said. “‘This happened and maybe I feel uncomfortable,’ or however you want to handle it. But ... just going straight to slapping an ethics or a code of conduct violation against someone without having some sort of conversation concerns me.”
She said reviewing complaints costs the city money and costs staff time and resources. The complaints filed against her and Baxter, which was later dismissed, cost the city nearly $28,000, she said, not including the board of ethics’ time, staff time or councilors’ time.
“And then you have to look at what it's like to work on a council where one of your colleagues has filed a claim against another,” she said.
Another concern councilors discussed on Tuesday is that there’s no real way of holding complainants accountable for filing baseless complaints, besides making sure the public is informed about them.
“We’re all elected officials, and elected officials can’t control each other,” Baxter said.
Councilors reviewed several recommended changes to the city board of ethics’ formal complaint process and provided direction to staff on how to implement the process going forward. Bosmans did not attend the meeting.
Ethics complaints concern specific behavior such as lying, stealing money or other concrete wrongful actions, while the city’s code of conduct is more about interpersonal relationships, Baxter said.
Councilors agreed that ethics complaints should be handled by the board of ethics while relationship issues should be handled through the city manager’s office. And councilors asked city staff to investigate new ways to handle cases in which two or more city councilors are having code of conduct issues, she said.
Councilors also agreed that staff in the city clerk’s office should have the option of recusing themselves from reviewing cases involving people they work with on a day-to-day basis such as bosses, subordinates or colleagues. In circumstances where the city clerk wants to be recused from a case, an independent attorney and his or her staff would follow up with the case, Baxter said.
City staff received direction to modify complaint forms to include confidentiality information and to change notices of complaints filed to include specific information about how long a recipient has to reply to a complaint, she said.
Councilors also agreed that should a complainant not show up to a meeting or hearing about their complaint, the complaint should be dismissed; currently, the board of ethics can decide whether to dismiss a complaint. This change would require the board to dismiss a complaint if the complainant is absent, she said.
And, City Council currently appoints people to the board of ethics. Under another proposed change, the board of ethics would screen applicants before making recommendations to City Council on who to appoint, she said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
This story previously said several complaints were filed against Noseworthy, which is incorrect. One complaint was filed against her.
