Norwalk City Board of Ethics to finish five short ethics-code videos; staff warns about FOIA limits on member collaboration

NORWALK, Feb. 27, 2025 — The Norwalk City Board of Ethics voted to approve its prior meeting minutes and moved to complete and post the remaining short videos summarizing sections of the city code of ethics so employees, officers and residents can access them online.

The board’s short-term goal is to finish five outstanding slide-based videos summarizing specific code sections, then provide the files to the mayor’s office, which will review and coordinate uploading to the city website and the Board of Ethics web page, board members said.

The videos are intended to be brief (about one to two minutes each) and to explain the code’s plain-language meaning and give simple hypotheticals, board members said. “We have 5 sections that we have to summarize by way of short videos,” Board member Brian (staff member) said during the meeting. Members discussed having links from HR and other parts of the city website to the Board of Ethics page so employees and the public can find the material easily.

Why it matters: The board said short, easily accessible materials will make the ethics code more visible to employees and residents and could reduce future ethics inquiries or incidents by clarifying expectations.

Key details and next steps

- Remaining videos: Board members identified five outstanding slide sets to record (transcript referenced as “sections 32 6, 30 2 7, 30 2 11, 30 2 14, and 32 15”). - Production: Members will volunteer to record individual slide summaries; several said they can record in person and that recordings typically require one or two short takes. - Review and posting: The board expects to deliver completed videos to the mayor’s office for review and uploading; IT and HR staff have been consulted and offered assistance, board members said. - Promotion and access: The board encouraged that the videos live on the Board of Ethics page and be linked from HR and other city pages; members discussed including a web link in new-employee orientation materials. - Tracking completion: Board members discussed a possible IT solution that would require employees to certify viewing the videos and allow IT to track outstanding completions. Whether viewing would be mandatory or strongly recommended is a policy decision the board can recommend but not enact; the mayor’s office or HR would make the final determination.

Open-meetings and communications cautions

Board staff advised members about state open-meeting/FOIA rules and the risk of inadvertently creating a meeting by informal gatherings or group emails. “The rule is, for FOIA purposes, if there is a quorum of the board, and you're talking about board business, then it would meet the definition of a meeting. And then if we don't notice the meeting pursuant to the FOIA rules, we're in violation of FOIA,” Brian (staff member) said. He instructed members that informal in-person gatherings should include fewer than four members if board business will be discussed, and that emailing all members about board business can also meet the definition of a meeting.

Board business and formal actions

- Approval of minutes: The board voted to approve minutes from its prior meeting (minutes date as presented to the board). Two members recorded that they raised their hands in support during the meeting and the minutes were finalized. - Adjournment: The board moved and voted unanimously to adjourn the Feb. 27 meeting.

Meeting context and timeline

Board members said they aim to complete the remaining recordings before April so they can finalize recommendations about promotion and any seminar or symposium the board might host to explain the code more fully. Members discussed compiling two to three prioritized recommendations for promotion and delivery of the materials (for example, whether the training should be mandatory, whether employees could complete it during work hours, and the technical feasibility of tracking completion).

Ending

Board members were asked to review the outstanding slide sets, decide which they will record, and report availability so recordings can be scheduled. The board plans to review compiled recommendations and the status of recordings at its next meeting.