Ethics officer report recommends clarifying role, improving public process transparency

Representatives from Ogden Murphy Wallace presented the city’s annual ethics officer report and outlined four areas for council consideration: clarify the relationship and information-sharing processes between the ethics officer and the city attorney; publish more public-facing process information (including timing and decisional criteria for advisory opinions and complaints); identify and resolve conflicts between the ethics code and other city policies (such as the council protocol manual); and evaluate where local code should be more stringent than state law.