Questions of conflict of interest…

To be posed to present (or past) City Council members, and candidates for that office.

While there are many, for the purposes of this exercise attention will be limited to only two situations:

1. The many boards and commissions, which all report to City Council and to which City Council appoints all members, and also appoints themselves as “liaisons”.

2. The Middletown Public Housing Authority, which reports to City Council and to which City Council has appointed themselves, in their entirety, as the sole members.

SITUATION 1:

No one questions the fact that the council is allowed to create all of the boards and commissions that they deem necessary to “provide advice” on specific matters in the city. What is in dispute is whether it is either lawful or ethical for council to appoint one, two, or in some cases even three of its members as “liaisons” or any other sort of “ex officio” members of these very same boards and commissions.

Some of the actual “working” boards and commissions (such as the Board of Health, Tax Review, Zoning and Zoning Appeals Board, etc.) operate according to specific regulations of the Ohio Revised Code (ORC). The ORC does NOT allow for “liaisons”, or anything of the like for these specific boards or commissions. Anyone can easily go to Middletown’s Codified Ordinances (Section 1260) and cross-reference to the applicable sections of the ORC to verify this. None of these codes or laws are written in extreme “legalese”, and in fact, most of the language is in such simple terms that even members of city councils should be able to understand. In fact, the Library Board does not even report to council, and only passes their budget through council for forwarding to the County Commission! (City Council is also required to pass along any levy requests from the Library Board of Trustees.)

You will see that, by law, the boards and commissions such as the Park Board, the Golf Commission, the Tree Commission, Keep Middletown Beautiful, and the like sole duties are to “advise the city council on _________”. (Insert whatever the name of the board or commission implies.) If their duty is to “advise” city council, why on earth does a council member need to be on the very same board or commission, and doesn’t that automatically create a “CONFLICT OF INTEREST” since one reports to the other? How can council members advise themselves without an inherent conflict of interest???

In the past, council members have only had a few, weak defenses of their stance. First, they say that ONLY by having one of their own officially assigned to each board or commission can they keep up with what is going on with the boards and commissions. First, of course this lame defense means that council members don’t realize that the sole purpose of these boards and commissions is to ADVISE COUNCIL!!! THAT is how they are supposed to “keep up”, when the board or commission ADVISES them!!! Also, every one of the board and commission meetings is an OPEN, PUBLIC MEETING (or at least they are supposed to be)! Any or all council members are perfectly free to attend EVERY board or commission meeting as an ORDINARY CITIZEN!!! Of course, then they would have to sit in the peanut gallery with the rest of us ordinary citizens, and they would not be able to STEER meetings in the direction that THEY, themselves, prefer!!! Nor would they be able to “enhance” their resumes with all of this so-called “public service”. By the way, has ANYONE EVER heard one of these “liaisons” report back to the entire council all of the details of “what was going on” with these boards and commissions at the city council meetings??? They claim that is why they simply MUST be appointed to them, yet we never hear them report these supposed elusive goings-on. Surely they wouldn’t be discussing them at some other “prearranged discussion of this city business by a majority of council members” that the public is unaware of, would they??? Well, if they are NOT discussing them in illegal, clandestine meetings, and they aren’t discussing them at regular council meetings, WHY was it again that these “liaisons” are so VITAL to keeping the full council informed????

Next, council members claim that “all the other cities do it.” Well, not ALL other cities do it that way!!! That is simply UNTRUE! They are using a childish excuse that most of us would not accept from our own children when they claim, usually in tears, that “all the other kids are allowed to do it!” Besides, If we are to accept THAT ridiculous excuse, shouldn’t council listen if we cry: “all the other cities have better streets!” and “All the other school districts get better scores!” or “All the other cities have lower taxes!” or “All the other cities have less crime!”???

The other bogus excuse they use is: “That’s the way we’ve always done it.” Well, sorry, but that is also untrue!!! Besides, If “that’s the way we’ve always done it” is a valid reason, how about lowering the city income tax back to “the rate we ALWAYS had” or “keep our streets in as good shape as we ALWAYS did” or maybe even go back to all white, male city commissioners, the way we ALWAYS did it until recently!! Would ANY of them go along with THAT??? (By the way, I do NOT advocate going back to all white, males. I am just trying to illustrate the absurdity of their argument.) However, going back to a “city commission, with an elected chairperson acting as ceremonial mayor” might be a pretty good idea.

In addition to the above, there is settled case law (specifically regarding council members on Library Boards and Park Boards) and numerous Opinions of the Attorneys General (OAGs) which DISAGREE with the council’s and the City Law Director’s view on this subject. I have asked several times in the past for council members to ask for an OAG, but, to my knowledge, they never have done so.

SITUATION 2:

The city council recently appointed themselves, as a body, to be the Middletown Public Housing Authority, and by doing so, authorized themselves to administer both CONSOC’s contract, and all other matters concerning Public Housing in the city of Middletown.

There are so many thing absolutely WRONG about this, I don’t know where to begin!!!

I’ll start with the ORC.