Loveland officials review draft ethics code, seek tweaks on city-attorney role and protections for accused officials

City Attorney Vince Jungless and outside advisor Matt Hader presented a consolidated draft of Loveland's proposed ethics regulations during a City Council study session on a September 2025 evening, laying out a process for advisory opinions, investigation, special counsel, and potential sanctions but asking council for feedback on whether the city attorney should exercise initial screening authority.

The presentation matters because the draft would centralize screening of complaints in the City Attorney's Office, formalize filing standards (no anonymous complaints, sworn statements under penalty of perjury), allow the city attorney to hire special counsel for investigations, and preserve council authority over whether a matter proceeds to a public evidentiary hearing and administrative sanctions.

Jungless told council that “we currently have no process to handle ethics complaints beyond prosecution and municipal court,” and said the new regulations would consolidate ethics-related provisions in the municipal code, add an anti‑retaliation standard and an ex parte disclosure requirement, and create procedural steps from intake through a council determination on whether to issue a notice to proceed to a hearing officer. Hader said the team’s first goal was “to restate the ethics provisions in your code in a consolidated…