Wayne County Commission to present ethics-ordinance changes to task force

The Wayne County Commission prepared to present proposed amendments to the county's ethics ordinance to an ethics task force scheduled to meet the next day, and members raised questions about whether the board will have a dedicated budget or explicit authority to hire investigators.

At the meeting, a presenter identified as Longstreet told commissioners the task force — created by the commission through Chair Alicia Bell and composed of three county commissioners (Allen Wilson as chair, Melissa Dobb and Jonathan Kinlock) — will conduct a comprehensive review of the ordinance. “Their purpose is to strengthen the Wayne County ethics ordinance in regards to its enforcement, to clearing certain ambiguities in regards to definitions of particular conduct,” Longstreet said, adding the group aims to create “a more defined and more structured” ordinance so that “everyone knows what is ethical and what's not.”

The commissioners confirmed the task force will review a version of the ordinance submitted in 2022. Longstreet said the copy distributed to the board is a corrected 12/14/2022 draft reflecting the changes the commission intends to present to the task force. He said the corrections are the changes “we actually made” and that those are the pages the county will review.

Vice chair Woods pressed for clarification about the panel’s authority to finance investigations and to hire outside investigators. “Is there a limit to the investigation amount of money you could spend on the investigation?” Woods asked. Longstreet replied, “There's never really been a discussion in regards to a budget of how much an investigation would cost,” and said that under his contract he has the ability to hire needed personnel, though he recommended clarifying hiring and spending authority in the ordinance itself: “Well, my contract allows me to hire those persons that I need and build that to the county,” he said.

Board members agreed those issues — whether the ethics board will have a standing investigation budget and whether the ordinance should explicitly authorize outside investigators — are appropriate to raise at the task force meeting. Longstreet invited commissioners to identify any additional changes they want included in the presentation so the commission can present a consolidated position to the task force.

Procedural business: the commission approved the minutes from the February 18, 2026 meeting after a motion and second; the chair announced the motion passed with no opposition recorded. No members of the public indicated they wished to speak via Zoom. The meeting was adjourned at 9:14 a.m.

The ethics task force meeting is set for 1:00 p.m. the following day, when commissioners expect to present the 12/14/2022 corrected draft and discuss the scope of enforcement, open-meetings considerations and advisory-opinion procedures.