Study Session - 6/6/2023 5:00:00 PM

Gilbert's new budget is focused on
helping us to manage growth across the
community
the new town hall opened this year and
there was a lot to look forward to in
the coming year
Gilbert's new budget is focused on
helping us to manage growth across the
community
the new town hall opened this year and
there was a lot to look forward to in
the coming year
hello
we need to get moving because we have a
very short amount of time for our study
session this evening
thank you we will go ahead and call to
order our Council study session for
Tuesday June 6th we have one item on our
agenda which is discussion and Direction
on the recommendation from the Council
subcommittee on Code of Ethics related
to the ethics handbook policy and code
of conduct
and Chris Payne are you presenting I am
mayor great thank you am I fine here do
you want me to move up
okay fantastic thank you and welcome
back mayor I hope you had a great trip
good so I'm gonna I'm gonna do the
report out from the subcommittee
uh
can everyone hear me okay okay I'm gonna
do the report out from the subcommittee
but subcommittee members vice mayor
tilkey councilmember Torgerson council
member Anderson feel free to jump in at
any time interrupt me if you want to add
something to it I will not be offended
I'll actually appreciate it so we'll go
through here real quick I just got a few
slides to kind of go over what the
recommendations are and then we'll be
looking for some feedback and direction
from Council at the end of this
um so this is what we're going to talk
about the history and purpose of of the
code of ethics the existing one we're
going to review the subcommittee what
the work they did and their
recommendations and then look for some
discussion and direction from Council so
this is just uh
kind of going back to what we talked
about at the retreat in December but the
ethics policy that the current ethics
policy dates back to 2012 and the
purpose as stayed in the policies
maintain public confidence in the
Integrity of public officials and in
still public trust is this was revised a
couple of years ago to require three
council members to agendaize a complaint
then subsequent to that Council gave
Direction hey let's talk about this at a
future Retreat which we did do in
December of last year and then on
December 13th at the council meeting
Council created an Ethics subcommittee
that's why we're here today
so on that December 13th meeting where
the council created the subcommittee the
purpose as stated was to explore
policies for revising and updating the
current policy including best practices
for responding to complaints that's the
charge that the subcommittee took and
that's what we tried to do as a
subcommittee and when I say we I mean
the three council members I was just
described and provided some help where
needed so the subcommittee held met four
times we had four separate public
meetings and then ultimately we're here
today because there are recommendations
the first recommendation is to repeal
the existing Code of Ethics in
conjunction with adopting what's the
subcommittee is recommending the
adoption of an Ethics handbook and then
adopting a separate code of conduct and
we're going to go through what
it's being proposed for the ethics
handbook and the code of conduct
so the ethics handbook and as we get
into this you're going to see the whole
purpose of I think what the subcommittee
really wanted to do was to make the
ethics process the complaint process
make it very transparent for the public
not just for the council but for the
public to understand and so the idea
here is rather than just have
you know a uh you know a 12-page
document with a bunch of letters in
writing and and you know just laying out
like in a Word document but is to create
a handbook something that you can see
some cities have done this we looked at
a lot of other cities something that has
graphics and is really easy to read and
easy to understand something that would
be posted on you know the town website
so if anyone has any questions about
what's what's the ethics policy how do I
file a complaint that can just click on
a link and they can just do it right
from there
um so the purpose of the ethics handbook
it would apply to elected officials to
the council as well as your appointed
public officials members of boards
commissions and committees so what you
saw in the packet you know the draft
ethics handbook it would apply to the
elected and the board commission and
committee members the ethics handbook it
defines the scope of the standards that
are going to be governed by that ethical
code the current code is pretty Broad
and not very clear and the the
subcommittee really wanted to clarify
and make it clear to everyone what would
be considered an ethical violation and
what would not be and we're going to go
through that
um
it also creates limitations on filings
on the filings we'll talk about those as
well it creates a whole new ethics
complaint process and kind of turns
things on the head from the way it
currently is to what's being proposed
and that's through providing for
mediation
first and then provides counsel with a
final review option it sets forth the
clear potential penalties and sanctions
what's being proposed does not require
if there's an ethical violation and the
council ultimately finds that there is
one by a council member a member of a
board commissioner committee you've got
options to assess a penalty or sanction
but you don't have to and then it also
there's a section that talks about
provides accounts with authority to
initiate investigations where where
appropriate and where where lawful
so the ethics handbook the scope is this
is what is this is what ethical
violations under the proposed handbook
would be it'd be based on these four
different pill pillars we've got as
you've as you saw in the in the draft
there's four sections honesty Integrity
fairness and partiality respect loyalty
and gifts
if this ethics handbook is adopted as
recommended by the subcommittee that's
where if if a member of the council or
member of a board commission or
committee you know violates any one of
these four then someone could file a
complaint an Ethics complaint on that if
there's other conduct maybe violations
of state law open meeting law you could
not file an Ethics complaint
for a violation or alleged violation of
the open meeting law and the idea is
there are State remedies for that and so
we clearly lay that out in the ethics
handbook the intent of the subcommittee
was to say
these are the four pillars here if you
think an ethical violation occurred if
you think there was a state law
violation we have those laid out we have
links to whether some some cases the
attorney general has jurisdiction over
that they could file a complaint with
the attorney general but the idea is to
not have
potentially right if there's an open
meeting law violation and someone filing
a complaint with the AG and then also
filing an Ethics complaint you've got
recourse under state law that's where
you should go and the ethics violations
are only limited to these type of things
um so here are the limitations I think
part of what the council or the
subcommittee really wanted to
really wanted to make it they didn't
want to make it where someone could wait
a couple of years where they think
someone violated an Ethics policy or an
Ethics standard and then wait two years
and then file a complaint so these are
the some of some of the limitations
there's filing requirements you need to
identify you know what happened what you
say what happened you need to show where
in the ethics policy which one of those
four pillars was allegedly violated
complaints are limited right now anyone
can file a complaint
and you can we we accept Anonymous
complaints we're not going to accept
Anonymous complaints that's the
recommendation and complaints may only
be filed by council members members of
boards commission committee staff
residents and then Gilbert residence
Gilbert business owners and any other
person directly aggrieved so that's
broad enough that if someone feels like
hey they you know an ethical violation
occurred and they were impacted they
could file it but some random resident
from a different city
could not if they wanted to do one for
political purpose or anything else if
they have no Nexus then they would be
prohibited from filing the timeline
there that's being recommended is 30
days
the idea is if there is a ethical
violation or allegations that we just
move this quickly that's the whole point
and what the subcommittee really talked
about is try to
try to get these things to move quickly
and be resolved quickly and then the
state-long exclusion that's what we
talked about for violations of open
meeting laws or public records laws or
conflicts of interest there's state law
remedies and so those would not be
ethical violations that would be
considered under the policy someone may
you know making an allegation they have
other recourse for that
and then
um now we're getting into the complaint
process so we talked about those four
pillars if someone believes that a
council member for example violated you
know one of those four pillars they
would file the complaint it gets filed
with the Town Clerk and then there's
three separate steps the first step
would be mediation a required sit down
and that would that would be made up of
the person who filed the complaint would
have to sit down with the person who the
complaint was filed against
we've got built-in you know we're
recommending the creation of this
independent mediator process that would
be appointed this mediator would be
appointed through ASU college of law
their mediation program and they would
appoint a mediator who would then sit
down with the person who the com person
filed complaint the council member or
the board and commission member who the
complaint was filed against I just make
sure I get this right
um
the town attorney
and
yep and that's it so the idea of that is
um I think the subcommittee really
believes that most of the time when
people feel like an Ethics violation may
have occurred if you can get the parties
to sit down in a room and they could
probably talk through things and the
idea is you get ahead of having to go
through an investigation the idea is you
sit down you have a mediation and the
people are able to talk through the
concerns they have and the idea is that
probably most of them would die there
and they'd be done and that you wouldn't
move on to the next steps if if the
complaint at that point after they've
had a sit down and with this mediator
and had an opportunity to State their
concerns and have a discussion if they
feel like it hasn't been resolved they
can move on and they can request that
they can move that complaint on and at
that point it goes to an independent
investigation again the the
there would be a person appointed by the
ASU college of law they'd be making that
selection and they would they would
serve as the um
independent investigator at that point
or at least as the person overseeing the
process overseeing the ethics process we
call them an independent ethics reviewer
so it's not the investigator
they would take a look at the complaint
determine whether or not you know it
satisfies the requirements if it doesn't
then they would make a recommendation to
the council to kick it out because it's
not covered by the scope and if it does
then they decide whether they make
recommendations to the council or if
they need to do an independent
investigation
whether they do an independent
investigation or they make
recommendations to the themselves at
that point then it would come to the
council and then at that point it's very
similar to the current process where the
council then would get a copy of the
report if there's an Ethics report any
recommendations and then they would
review it at a public meeting at the
next available the next regularly
scheduled council meeting they would
review that as an administrative item
and then ultimately make a decision on
what they want to do with that complaint
they've got the council May under this
subcommittee the subcommittee's
recommendations you can
accept the investigative report and
recommendations and hold them in part
you can send it back to the independent
ethics reviewer for additional
investigation
you can make your own findings with
regard to the complaint
um
or take really any other action
including dismiss the complaint if you
want if the council by affirmative vote
of five members determines that an
Ethics violation has occurred then the
council can impose penalties
and we'll go through those penalties
right now
um you can make a determination that
there was an ethical violation but
impose no sanction or no penalty you can
require ethical training you can have a
letter of warning
um you know the council could issue a
letter of warning a former a formal
censor a letter of reprimand you can
impose a fine loss of funding privileges
so any funding that you have as a
council member which we all know is not
a whole lot
but that that's a potential sanction
remove the position of assignment to a
council member on you know mag or any
other committee that you serve on and
then number nine is removal of office
for board commit commission and
committee members
because we're a general law Town sitting
council members cannot be removed by the
current Town Council some cities have
that Authority and that ability but
that's because they're a charter City
and that's built into their Charter so
nine you can remove a board and
commission Committee Member after this
process but just a reminder
board commission committee members serve
at the pleasure of the council and you
can remove them at any time for any
reason after this processor regardless
of the profit process
any questions about
the code of the ethics handbook
and if not I'll get into the code of
conduct and we can take questions at the
end as well
so the the second recommendation from uh
the subcommittee is is as we started to
dig into the existing ethics policy and
looking at other cities cities handle
and and they have different codes they
have different ways they approach this
and the subcommittee ultimately decided
to recommend that they separate out that
we separate separate out
what we call a code of conduct so you've
got those four ethical pillars and then
the code of conduct is as it says here
Common Sense guidelines to assist public
officials in performing your duties but
these are things that the subcommittee
didn't think should necessarily arise to
the level of an Ethics violation it's
more procedural type things and the idea
is you know if a public official council
member or board commissioner Committee
Member you know missteps in some way
that that shouldn't automatically rise
to the level of an ethical violation but
if there is a misstep whether it's in a
public meeting or a conversation with a
staff member or a conversation with a
constituent you know we wanted to make
sure the subcommittee wanted to make
sure that there are guidelines that
everyone understands what the standards
are what's expected of our public
officials and there's a way to address
them if they see some behavior that is
not really you know doesn't rise to the
level of an ethical violation but a
behavior that needs to be addressed and
so that's the point of the code of
conduct and again it would apply to
elected officials to the seven of you as
well as members of the board's
commission and committees
and so here's a general overview of the
code of conduct and you look at you know
a through H and this is really as you've
read each one
um
it talks about here's how you deal with
these different scenarios right your
general duties to the town how you're
you know the the set of guidelines and
really what's going to be expected on
how public officials you know their
conduct with each other their conduct
with staff with members of the public
F there the economic development
confidentiality provision that is
actually from that we put that in there
as a recommendation from when we had our
public meeting about the council
policies that was a separate Council
policy and the recommendation was you
know do away with that policy but fold
it into the code of conduct or the
ethics and this is where we put that
um
and then your conduct right what's
acceptable or at least the standard that
you'd want to have with members of
boards commissions committees and then
conduct with the media so have you as
you've had an opportunity to look at the
code of conduct that's the intent there
is kind of set what's going to be
required what the council you know
expects your behavior and other members
of the board's commissions committees to
be with all these different interested
parties
there is a complaint process that the
subcommittee is recommending on the code
of conduct it's
different from the ethical complaint
process again if someone alleges that a
member of a board commissioner committee
violated the code of conduct
it doesn't automatically jump up to the
level of a ethics violation and go
through that process and so this is what
the recommendations are that a violation
or alleged violation of code conduct is
only filed by a public official
you know a council member or member
board commissioner committee or a staff
member that's it and not filed by a
member of the public or anyone anything
else
there's a 30-day limitation similar to
the code of ethics
um
similar code of ethics there would be a
mandatory in-person meeting so say for
example council member Bon Giovanni
files a code of conduct complaint
against council member koprowski you're
going to get the two of you are going to
get to sit down together with the town
attorney and the town manager and either
the mayor or the vice mayor and have a
conversation hey what are your concerns
why did you file the complaint what can
we do to rectify this and if we need to
you know hopefully change if if there's
some substance there maybe change some
behaviors and then we move on and that's
it and and that's that's the point there
it would be an ethical violation for a
refusal to participate so if
council member in that scenario
councilman koprowski says no I'm not
meeting with you council member Bon
Giovanni to talk about this and that
would be an ethical violation and then
that would go to the council there's a
process built in for the council to
determine whether or not that's an
ethical violation and whether or not you
want to process that through the ethical
um you know the code the ethics handbook
process
um
and then the subcommittee did build in
if you know the idea is if there is a
pattern of bad behavior violating the
code of conduct by a member of you know
the council or a member of a board
commission or committee if there's
multiple cold of conduct complaints on
the same topic right
within a time frame then there's a
process built in where the town clerk
would notify the council that hey I've
received more than two so three or more
code of conduct complaints about a
council member on this topic and then
the council can decide okay what are we
going to do with this is this Behavior
enough that we need to rise it to the
level of an Ethics complaint if so then
it runs through kind of starts back up
to that ethics complaint process
and that's it that's what's being
recommended by the subcommittee and I'm
subcommittee members I'm sure can answer
any questions as well as myself
thanks Chris any questions or comments
vice mayor thanks mayor um
first I appreciate all the work that the
subcommittee put into this
um thought process and the goal here
really is to never use these right and
that it never elevates but
I believe today we don't really have a
process in place and nobody knows what
to do when there is bad behavior going
on and so this this just tightens that
up a little bit so there is a process
but I think more importantly
especially as new council members come
on board and I'll use myself as an
example
um when you come from the business world
and you're thrown into this new world
you don't do things the same and and
it's hard to imagine that until you
start going down that path and all of a
sudden it's like oh I can't do that like
I used to do it in my own business and
so
I I see this as a training opportunity
for new council members as well so that
they understand some of the differences
in the nuances ahead of time and if they
misstep which we all do then there's an
opportunity to sit down and talk about
it so that they better understand it and
before it ever has to get elevated to
any type of Ethics complaint or anything
like that so that to me that's really
the goal is to ensure that we understand
you know the the differences and also
understanding that we're going to
stumble along the way because it's new
for us and and this is helps give a
guideline so that's it thank you
any other comments or questions
councilmember Anderson
I too like to thank all those who
participated in this I think as as Kathy
said the goal is
to get to a point where it's easy to
understand and it's it's a simple
process and one that can get done
quickly rather than dragging on
the uh I only had a question more than a
comment a lot of this also affects our
boards and commissions and committees
and I'm wondering if before we do any
final adoption we should share this with
them to get input from them
I agree with that also I was introducing
council member koprowski
thank you for the presentation and thank
you to the subcommittee for your work on
this document I thought that it was
clear and covered a lot of different
topics that I think would be very
helpful not only to current and future
council members but also the board and
commission members in terms of giving
some direction the only comment I had as
we were going through that presentation
that I just verified was there's section
H in the guidelines Town Council conduct
with the media it's pretty brief in this
document but I know we've received some
additional Direction
um
and training on this
from the town and
would potentially suggest expanding this
section
to
either add
um
some additional Points of Authority or
uh
you know how
a public official can
work with the media or any kind of
direction that they have for that I
think that might be beneficial because a
lot of other areas were pretty specific
which I think was helpful
thank you thank you councilman Giovanni
yeah I agree with um councilman
councilman Anderson on
getting some feedback at least from the
boards and commissions also since
they'll have to be following this also
vice mayor
thanks
um
the kind of feedback that you are
looking for is did we miss something or
I'm trying to figure out that would
they're appointed by us and so they fall
under the rules that we provide and so
I'm not against it I'm just trying to
figure out what type of feedback you may
be wanting to receive from them
just an acknowledgment that they they're
aware of it I don't want to okay have
something happen and we say oh by the
way there's a process you're subject to
that you don't even know about just so
they know about it so do you think it's
fair after today's discussion that we
sent out a draft to them and allow them
to just so they would know and because I
think the intent was to bring this back
on the 20th to vote on if possible
um so if that would work I I would agree
with that as well there is the one
topic and I just want to make sure it
was clear on
I'm looking
see where it is it's the section Chris
where
um who under code of conduct who can
file a complaint and it says public
officials or town staff but I think our
intention was the staff can file a
complaint through Patrick and then
Patrick would bring that forward that
way you just don't have you know every
employee coming directly in this process
but I think that's what we intend and I
just want to make sure that it that
that's clear in there
yeah vice mayor uh thank you that's in
section I um okay and and that's correct
here's what it says um
complaints alleging violations go to
conduct maybe only filed by public
officials or town staff within 30 days
made in writing the town in you know
complaints remain writing the town clerk
um
says Town staff may only file complaints
regarding allegations of violations of
the code of conduct that related to
interactions with treatment of town
staff
and I think that's where it should say
through the town map through the town
manager yeah
we could add that in okay okay thank you
any other comments or questions
I I would just recommend that public
officials is maybe defined a little bit
more clearly where it says elected and
appointed officials because I don't know
that even our board members understand
that they are a public official I think
it can be confusing so if we can make it
much more straightforward I think that's
better to better for everybody to
understand
and I'm not sure about sending this out
to our boards and commissions at this
point I if we send it out I think
they're going to be expecting that
they're going to be able to offer
feedback and then we would not be able
to
have time to review that feedback if
this is planned to be coming back on the
20th I think that what vice mayor said
is that the council sets the policy and
then once it's voted on it would be sent
out to all boarding commission members
so that they are brought up to speed so
that they know it exists and I think
that's what you're saying councilmember
Anderson if I understood you that you
want to make sure they all they all know
it's in place correct
yes I I don't want to catch them off
guard whether they say we didn't have
any idea that this was adopted by you
why why are we now subject to it so what
do you know about it what if we said if
this gets voted on on June 20th that it
wouldn't go into effect for like 30 or
60 days giving everyone time to have it
sent to them and them to become aware of
it would that make more sense that'll
work
okay did you hear that Chris so if we
intend to bring this back to the agenda
on June 20th that if it gets voted on
then and since we're off in July I would
like to say it wouldn't go into effect
for 60 days giving
us and the clerk's office time to make
sure it gets out to all born and
commission members and making sure that
they understand that this is going into
effect I think that's a little bit more
clear for them
so 60 days from July 20th we could do
August 1st that's less than 60 days or
let me know where you want the effective
date to be and we could build that in
I think 60 days from August from June
20th so that probably take us to closer
to the end of August August 20th just so
that
we have time and since we're off in July
then
sometimes if somebody wants to talk to
us it's not as easy to get a hold of us
too in the meantime maybe to understand
something better
and mayor this will be included in the
training for a new commission members so
I'm not sure if we don't need to
schedule but training on this
midterm just because it is new
something to think about
yes it will become part of their
training when they become new members
and for right now maybe
they do their training online chevelli
at this point correct so maybe that is
correct yeah you can check that they
have to say we we have read this and we
understand it yes Mary um they do it
online we can make it part of their
annual requirement and then also put it
on the resource page for them perfect
is that good with everyone
is that more understandable
councilmember Anderson or okay palatable
perfect
um the only other question that I had
was there was a section and now I've
lost it because I was trying to keep up
with the questions that people were
asking something about
408 408 Chris some Arizona rules oh yeah
so Arizona rule of evidence 408
basically says it's it's a settlement
Rule and basically it allows parties who
are in a dispute to be able to sit down
and have a conversation without anything
being admissible in a court of law so we
do that in settlement discussions and
the idea was just to kind of throw that
in there just in case but it's a way you
can have a honest conversation we do
this in litigation sit down and nothing
you say can be used against you later
and the idea is the purpose of the rule
is right get the parties together get
them to talk and maybe you can resolve
the issues okay I'd never heard of that
before could we provide maybe a footnote
as to what that rule is because if I was
reading this as a border commission
member like I did today I wouldn't know
what that means yes certainly I can do
that and why it was included in here and
then I noticed there's one section that
you have highlighted in yellow
on the code
that's the one in the code of ethics
relating to the Parliamentary procedure
yes that was a footnote but I think it
was addressed in the retreat I'm going
to delete that okay because there was a
conversation there to treat about about
that okay
yeah just wanted to um clarify since it
was still highlighted if we needed to
discuss that this evening
any other comments or questions
I've got one comment so councilmember
kaprowski had asked about kind of
beefing up that
section on the media we can do that if
the council wants still plan on bringing
to the 20th we can add you know I would
probably sit down with uh with Dana and
Rob Bohr and whoever else and and talk
about maybe we beefed that section up
and we can bring it to the Council on
the 20th and you could have a
conversation about that if you're fine
with that or how would you want us to do
that
I think
that councilmember
crossword work is it possible to
distribute that new language via email
prior to that meeting yes absolutely we
would do that
perfect thank you
um the when you were doing your slides
Chris there was one when you moved to
the code of conduct that had the I think
purpose is that the first paragraph of
the code of conduct no is this is that
included somewhere in here because I'm
not seeing it
if there is a purpose for the code of
conduct and we're showing it here I'm
thinking that it probably should be
within the code of conduct
let me take a look real quick mayor
and I know there's a lot of information
here and I appreciate all the work
you've done yes it's actually it's in
the first paragraph it's the second
basically it's the third common sense
guidelines yeah I just took out the
third sentence and identified that as a
purpose okay
great so yeah my comments again just if
we could Define public officials is
elected and appointed so that people
understand where they stand I didn't
understand my first couple years on the
commission that I was an appointed
official that makes you a public
official so I think it'll make it a
little bit more understandable
all right seeing no other
comments questions
then this was the only item that we had
on our study session so I will go ahead
and adjourn the study session
yeah so mayor we had we have an exact
session tonight we had noticed it for 5
30 in case this ended early so if the
council would like we could move up to
e-session and if we get through it we
don't have to go back tonight or we can
wait and just do it afterwards
okay