Knox County ethics committee adopts revised Code of Ethics and rules, will present changes to county commission

The Knox County Ethics Committee voted unanimously on May 15 to adopt a revised Knox County Code of Ethics and updated Rules of Procedure and will forward both documents to the Knox County Commission for consideration.

Subcommittee chair Michael Bidd, who led the rewrite effort, told the committee the drafts were circulated in advance and asked members to focus questions on substantive changes rather than read the text line by line. "I would if it's okay with you, Madam Chair, just open it up to the floor for any questions that anybody has regarding the code of ethics," Bidd said, inviting committee review.

During a sustained line-by-line review, members flagged inconsistent phrasing in several sections — for example, some provisions referred only to "employees" while others used "elected officials, employees, and appointees." Committee members agreed to standardize language using a single defined phrase to make coverage uniform across the document.

Members debated how the committee should handle the committee-specific training-video acknowledgement. Rather than requiring committee members to submit a signed form within 90 days, the committee agreed the revised text will require new appointees to view the ethics training video available on the Knox County website before their first official ethics committee meeting and that completion will be acknowledged in the meeting record. Committee members noted that some appointees are not county employees and questioned where physical acknowledgement forms (if retained) would be stored.

The group's attorney, Mr. Sanders, recommended an external review as a prudential step: he said a review by the University of Tennessee's County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) could confirm whether changes deviate from CTAS model code requirements and might prevent later revisions. Committee members welcomed the suggestion but did not require CTAS sign-off before forwarding the vote to the county commission.

On a motion and second (with a friendly amendment clarifying record-repository arrangements), the committee voted to adopt the Code of Ethics revisions and to forward the document to the Knox County Commission for acceptance or rejection. The committee's chair said she will contact the county clerk's office to ask whether the clerk can serve as a repository for disclosure forms; if the clerk's office declines, committee staff will explore HR or other secure storage options.

The committee also reviewed and approved the updated Rules of Procedure with only minor typographical corrections and reaffirmed a procedural requirement that members participating in a decision must have heard all testimony and reviewed all evidence for that matter. That measure passed by voice vote and will be included in the materials sent to the county commission.

The committee discussed next steps for public-facing materials, including a flowchart showing the complaint process and standardized template letters and a dedicated committee email account to improve public access. The chair said she would request time on the county commission agenda to present the drafts and the planned public-facing materials.

The meeting closed after a brief membership announcement and an adjournment motion. The committee's votes implement the committee-level approvals; final adoption of the Code of Ethics and Rules of Procedure rests with the Knox County Commission.