Board adds Community and Economic Development committee; ethics, conflict-of-interest and NDA proposals sent to full board

The St. Clair County Board of Commissioners voted to add a fifth standing committee, Community and Economic Development, to the board's committee structure and approved forwarding draft ethics and conflict-of-interest language and an economic development honesty policy to the full board for further discussion.

During the organizational meeting the board discussed committee assignments and whether to add a permanent committee to concentrate on economic development matters and township concerns. Commissioner Dave Rushing moved to add the committee; the motion was seconded and the board adopted the committee by roll call.

Commissioners also discussed draft bylaws language and three governance proposals prepared by one commissioner: a conflict-of-interest policy, a code of ethics and an "economic development honesty policy" that includes language about nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). The board voted to forward those draft documents to the full board as discussion items with the possibility of final action at a later meeting.

Commissioner Robert Felix, who earlier criticized EDA practices, said the county needs stronger rules to prevent elected officials or staff from being bound by private NDAs that would limit public disclosure. "It's incongruous to public service to have an NDA signed by an elected official," Felix said during the meeting.

Administrator/County staff said the proposals will be reviewed by corporation counsel before they come back to the full board. The board also asked administration to circulate the draft language to commissioners in advance of the next meeting so members can review and provide feedback.

Why it matters: Creating a named committee centralizes oversight and public hearings for development projects and county economic policy, and forwarding ethics/conflict-of-interest proposals signals a push by the newly organized board to adopt stricter transparency rules and address concerns raised by townships and residents about NDAs and project outreach.

Next steps: The administration will place the draft bylaws, conflict-of-interest language and the honesty policy on the full-board agenda for discussion; the new Community and Economic Development committee will meet as a standing committee and the board chair indicated an initial appointment to lead the committee.