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Commission reviews options to strengthen financial-disclosure policy; refers form to fiscal committee
Summary
City attorney presented options to revise the City Commission financial-disclosure policy (100-06); commissioners supported referring the matter to the fiscal committee to draft a concise, user-friendly form and discussed whether spouses should be included and an annual filing cadence.
City legal staff briefed commissioners on options to revise the commission's financial-disclosure process under policy 100-06, and commissioners generally agreed to refer the work to the fiscal committee for drafting. The city attorney framed three choices: (1) keep the existing self-declaration with improved management and enforcement, (2) refer to the fiscal committee to craft a revised disclosure form for incorporation into policy 100-06, or (3) propose an alternative approach.
The attorney explained the research included municipal examples (Detroit, Lansing, Macomb County) and an excerpt of Michigan statute MCL 15.706 for comparison. "What our current policy says and reiterated is that our current policy is kind of a self declaration," the attorney said, adding the penalty for noncompliance is principally political (censure) rather than criminal enforcement.
Commissioners debated specifics: Mayor David LeGrand emphasized the need to include spouses in disclosures to avoid loopholes, saying that transferring assets to a spouse could defeat the form's intent. "If you have a spouse, you can simply give all your assets...then you would be able to say, look, it's magic. I don't have any assets," the mayor said. Other commissioners urged a balance between rigor and ease of compliance — suggesting a concise form that takes under 10 minutes to complete, regular annual refreshes and clearer procedures for timeliness and stewarding the disclosures.
Comments from commissioners also raised technical points: whether liabilities should be disclosed in addition to assets, how often forms should be updated, alignment with campaign finance disclosures, and whether an ethics board should review filings. Several commissioners expressed support for the fiscal committee doing the drafting work and for a form that is both informative to voters and not unduly burdensome on part-time officials.
The commission did not take immediate formal action; staff will refer the matter to the fiscal committee for development of a draft form and report back.
