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Blowing Rock council adopts updated code of conduct, asks staff to finalize edits and collect signatures by August
Summary
After detailed line-by-line discussion, council approved a revised code of conduct and ethics framework July 8 subject to editorial and statutory clarifications; staff will produce a final draft and seek signatures from boards and commissions by the end of August.
The Blowing Rock Town Council on July 8 voted to approve a revised Code of Conduct and Ethics framework for elected officials and board members, contingent on several edits the council requested during a detailed review. Councilmembers asked for language clarifications, a statutory citation to define degrees of kinship/relative, the addition of an annual signature requirement for board members and consistent references to "mayor" and "councilmember" throughout the document.
Council discussion covered many specific editorial points, including renaming an "appeal protocol" subsection to "testimony protocol" and changing the time-language for public comment from a fixed "usually 3 minutes" to a mayor-or-chair determination of a "reasonable and meaningful length of time." Members also asked that staff add "research and staff time" to the list of items elected officials should not solicit from town staff and to ensure the document refers to the town "clerk" rather than "secretary" where appropriate.
The council agreed staff should incorporate the edits, include the statutory citation for kinship computations (as referenced in the meeting) and add a short definition so signers know what the citation means. Councilmembers asked staff to distribute the finalized document and request signed acknowledgements from council, mayor and all board/commission members by August 31. The council voted to adopt the draft subject to these changes.
