ETHICS CHARTER OFFICE, PUBLIC HEARING and COMMENT, CITY COUNCIL MEETING, City Hall, Tues. Feb. 28, 5pm

[Patricia M. McBride]

Come to the City Council meeting to make a public comment; or if you can't come in person, send an email to let city council know how you feel about these bills.

You can write directly to your city council person and the at large council people about these 2 bills.  You can find your city councilman/woman and the at large councilmen/women at this link: http://www.coj.net/city-council/city-council-members.aspx

Or, you can send your letter to city council through Braxton Gillam, Chair of the Ethics Commission at [e-mail] and he will forward your email to City Council for you.

Many citizen groups fought for 2 years to make sure the city has an independent Ethics Office and that ethics was in our Charter. (League of Women Voters, Tea Party, JCCI, Concerned Taxpayers, Character Counts, NAACP, Ethics Commission, Charter Commission and others.)

The Charter amendment passed in November, 2010 and all laws putting it into effect passed in June, 2011. The office was to be up and running Oct. 1, 2011. City Council allocated funding for the office in September, and those funds have been frozen. There are 2 bills pending in City Council right now that will help get the office going:

2012-0085; Clay Yarborough and 9 other sponsors: to release the ethics funding so that the new Charter independent ethics office can function.

The bill and summary can be found here and this bill is ready for council action:  http://cityclts.coj.net/coj/COJBillList.asp?Bill=2012-0085

2012-0010; A bill to confirm the Ethics Commission's nominee, Carla Miller, to be the director of this new office. (She has been working since appointed in December.)

The bill can be found here and is pending approval by the Rules Committee:  http://cityclts.coj.net/coj/COJBillList.asp?Bill=2012-0010

 

It would help if people who are interested in these bills show up on 2/28 to speak on behalf of the bills. There are 2 times you can speak; 1) in the beginning, 5pm: "Public Comment", time limit --3 minutes; and 2) again at the time for the hearing on the bill (2012-85), right after the Public Comment time (again, 3 minute limit). You can speak one or two times. To speak both times, you would fill out 2 blue comment cards. We will have someone right outside of the City Council chambers with these blue cards for you to fill out. The best time to arrive at City Hall is 4:45pm.