Today, in light of the news that a Frisco elected official’s business has been revealed as a major sponsor for an entity which continues to receive substantial incentives from our city, I have been inundated with questions from fellow Frisco residents on the subject of ethics and how we can bolster the ethical standards by which we conduct our affairs.
As my previous post on campaign finance highlighted, there are now significant dollars being contributed to campaigns and big deals being done between elected officials and those doing business in Frisco. We can do better. My approach to changing our ethics process is below.
Frisco passed its very first ethics policy in 2011. Since that time much has changed in the city. The ethics policy hasn’t. As your Mayor I would push for updating this policy.
There’s no greater way to increase transparency in municipal politics than by ensuring that residents have a process to understand if there are conflicts of interests among their elected officials.
In Frisco today, a resident follows the process to file an Ethics Complaint. Assuming the difficult process is followed correctly, it is what is next that definitely needs updating. Instead of an impartial group of residents deciding if there was in fact a reason to continue an investigation, the Frisco City Council decides. That would seem like a conflict in and of itself.
As your Mayor I would work to change this.
- My recommendation would be a number of individuals would be appointed to an ethics board.
- No one could be appointed to the board who had made a political donation to a candidate.
- Individuals would serve a one year term.
- The complaint would be presented to this board and if a simple majority voted for an investigation, the City Attorney would then hire a third party to complete an investigation, and then in a public session report it to the Ethics Board.
- The Ethics Board through a simple majority vote would then make a recommendation to the full city council (minus the subject of the ethics complaint) on how to proceed.
No process would be perfect, but I believe this approach brings better transparency to our residents when they have concerns about our elected officials.
Look forward to your respectful thoughts on this topic. Visit us on Facebook to add your comments and to share this message.
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