Lancaster City committee gets administrative code update; resident urges ethics provisions be left to ethics commission

A staff member leading the administrative-code project updated Lancaster City’s Government Study Transition Committee on progress, timelines and public-engagement plans and said the city aims to adopt a comprehensive administrative code before the end of the year.

The update noted that draft sections covering powers of the city, council and administration; salaries of elected officials; budgets, finance and accounting; procurement and records retention were presented to council in work sessions on June 17 and July 15. The staff member said the committee will review a second set of sections — including organizational structure, boards and commissions, forfeiture of office and basic ethics-code placeholders — at upcoming work sessions on Aug. 19 and Sept. 16.

“The goal is still to adopt it before the end of the year, preferably in October if we can,” the staff member said. The staff member also said the administrative code and any ethics code included within it would be adopted by ordinance and remain modifiable by council.

Why it matters: The administrative code is intended to consolidate and clarify city procedures now scattered across ordinances and custom. The city’s charter includes a separate requirement that an ethics code be developed by a newly appointed ethics commission; questions about how and where ethics provisions will be finalized were a central focus of public comment.

During the meeting, committee members and staff described several public-notice and engagement steps already in place: agendas published in the Lancaster newspaper, posting on the city website, livestreaming of meetings and an “engage” platform where citizens can submit questions about draft sections. The staff member also said the charter requires a public workshop specifically for the ethics-code component when that portion is ready for formal consideration.

Public commenter Tony Dastra of the 700 block of New Holland Avenue urged the committee to remove ethics-related sections from drafts of the administrative code and leave their drafting to the ethics commission. “All the sections of the code relating to the ethics of Chapter 12 of the charter need to be handled by the ethics commission,” Dastra said, adding that the commission had been appointed but had not yet met at the time of his remarks.

Committee members confirmed that the ethics commission’s first meeting was scheduled for Aug. 7 and reiterated that the charter sets the ethics-code requirements. The staff member clarified timeline points raised during the discussion: the charter’s effective date was noted as Dec. 1, and the staff member said the ethics code must be completed by Dec. 31 (the staff member described the ethics-code deadline relative to the charter’s effective date during the meeting).

Committee members and staff said they expect more extensive discussion in the next phase of work sessions when topics such as council meeting structure, forfeiture of office procedures and boards and commissions receive more detailed review. One council representative said council members have been sharing updates with the full council after each transition-committee meeting to help publicize the process.

Before adjourning, a council member moved to adjourn; the motion was made from the floor and the meeting concluded without a recorded roll-call vote.

What's next: The committee will consider the second section of draft administrative-code material at the Aug. 19 and Sept. 16 work sessions; the ethics commission will begin meeting in August to develop its recommendations for council consideration.