Maybe those periodic reviews have been happening like clockwork and I just missed them. Can someone alert me when the next one happens so I can contribute?Sec. 2-10. Review.
The City Council shall review this article once every two years following its adoption on September 27, 2010.
Source: City of Richardson.
The Code of Ethics needs to be thoroughly reviewed from top to bottom, but for a start, here's one part that just might be relevant in the case of the mayoral bribery indictment. I complained about it when the Code of Ethics originally passed in 2010. I called it a "A Gag Order Against Whistleblowing". I suggested alternative wording that would have instead turned it into "an honor code to require whistleblowing." Richardson maybe could have used a whistleblower when the Palisades scandal was playing out. Or maybe no one had the knowledge at the time. We don't know about that. What we do know is that the Code of Ethics we had was no help to us at all in finding anything out.
There are other flaws in the Code of Ethics, but that'll do to get the ball rolling. It's time for an open, independent citizens' commission to fix what's broken. Given the sad recent events, it's obvious that there's plenty that's broken.
4 comments:
As I would have expected, the review of the Code of Ethics has been on the Council calendar every two years, as required.
RICHARDSON CITY COUNCIL
WORK SESSION AGENDA
MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012
handout - https://www.cor.net/home/showdocument?id=5322
RICHARDSON CITY COUNCIL
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
WORK SESSION AT 6:00 PM
handout - https://www.cor.net/home/showdocument?id=11242
RICHARDSON CITY COUNCIL
MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2016
WORK SESSION AT 6:00 PM
handout - https://www.cor.net/home/showdocument?id=16221
This scheduling suggests that the next review of the Code of Ethics will be at a worksession (not a council meeting) in October of 2018.
Bill, thanks for that research. The 2016 "review" took a total of 6 minutes, 43 seconds of a council work session. The council had zero questions and zero feedback. No citizen input was asked for. Evidently, the council is satisfied with the Code of Ethics that failed the City in the Palisades scandal. This is not the kind of review I called for.
I haven't checked, but I would be willing to bet that not a single citizen appeared at any review to express concern.
As for citizen input, there is always opportunity for citizen input:
1. emails to the councilmembers (email addresses are published on the city website).
2. phone calls to councilmembers (some councilmembers give out a phone number, and it isn't hard to find the others - just ask the councilmembers who get texts from angry citizens on a variety of issues.
3. at every worksession that is not followed by a council meeting (the three I referred to were all like this), there is a Visitor's Section in which residents can speak for 5 minutes on anything, like an agenda item on ethics later in the meeting. I have personally seen the council referring to visitor comments during the agenda item's discussion, so coming and speaking in this case is not wasted.
In short, governance should be a joint effort between the people and their representatives. If voters are concerned about an issue, they have a duty to make the effort to contact their representatives in a way made freely available to them.
I fully agree that citizens have a responsibility to demand good governance from their elected representatives. On the other hand, elected representatives have a responsibility to be aware of what's needed for good governance and deliver same. It's dereliction of duty to wait for citizens to ask.
Post a Comment