Now it's time for the council to consider a meaningful Ethics Resolution.....By Richard Newton

How important do you think ethics, integrity and trustworthiness are to the successful operation of a small town like Colleyville? Is the topic of ethics simply a convenient political tool to be used to keep an opponent on the defensive before a campaign? Does personal integrity and ethical behavior in your elected officials have any real substance that would make a difference to you the citizen? I don't just mean philosophically, but I mean to your pocketbook.

You see in my political career, I have learned that citizens are rarely mobilized into action by philosophical points, but they are always mobilized into action when there is a personal point of impact, especially to their pocketbook.

On April 17th I observed a political game being played in the Colleyville city council chambers. A game in which an "Ethics Resolution" was the ball that was being tossed around by the politicians. It was a flamboyant contest in which each political team was trying to get the other side to drop the "ball" so they could label them "ethically deficient". The idea was that the voting public would clearly view an "ethically deficient" candidate as a poor choice.

Having been an elected official in Colleyville five times, three as mayor, in times of both peaks and valleys in the political cycle, I know a "political game" when I see one. This "game" was political, but it was not good. It was a sham with no substance. In fact, it made the players that threw the ball onto the field to start the "game" look totally inept.

The "Ethics Resolution" (the ball) was thrown together so fast and it was constructed so poorly that the ball was literally deflated by the time it was finally caught and voted on. The Fort Worth Star Telegram expressed the same opinion in an editorial a few days later. The originator of the resolution had to neuter it herself during her motion for approval based on 14 items of deficiency pointed out by the city attorney in the private executive session held immediately prior to the public city council meeting. By the way, it is a violation of the Open Meetings act for the city council to discuss or debate any topic that is on the open agenda. So much for Ethics!!

The resolution ended up being totally voluntary; a simple request that candidates and elected officials disclose selected financial sources and property ownership information. In reality it doesn't address ethics in the least and some of the current elected officials didn't bother to file information "voluntarily requested".

My answer to the questions I asked in the first paragraph is - "you bet it makes a difference." These people are spending our money and if they make mistakes because they are more interested in personal gain, greed or power, it will hurt our pocketbooks in a variety of ways. I was insulted, saddened, aggravated and mobilized to action by how such an important issue was reduced to a real life political cartoon.

If, and this is a BIG if, the city council and mayor meant anything they said during that April 17th "Ethics Resolution" debate, it is now time to seriously develop and live by a true ethics resolution. Now that the campaigns are over and the next election is a year away, this topic should get the thought and attention that we the citizens truly deserve without being tainted by campaign rhetoric.

Let's not confuse the word ethical with legal. You can legally define what is acceptable financial disclosure, but you can't legislate ethics. Let's not do the typical Colleywood thing by defining everything in terms of money. Ethics are much more than financial disclosure. Ethics are about honesty, integrity and trust, which can only be demonstrated through behavior and earned through experience.

Let me give you some examples of significant ethical issues that have victimized Colleyville in the recent past that the existing "Ethics Resolution" as passed by the city council does not address:

• It does not address abuse of power.

• It does not address manipulation of information to control council decisions and public perception.

• It does not address the ethics of disclosing information discussed in executive session by public officials.

• It does not require elected officials to be honest in all city business activity and it does not require that they not lie to gain political or personal financial advantage.

During my experience as an elected official I have observed the following actual examples of unethical behavior:

• An elected official divulged confidential information concerning the city's legal strategy discussed in executive session to a developer who then used this information to preemptively file a lawsuit against the city. This resulted in a large financial cost to the city and significant intangible losses to citizens that live in the development that the lawsuit targeted. The elected official that divulged this confidential information had a business relationship with the developer and had brokered separate business transactions for the developer.
• An elected official promoted the settlement of a lawsuit against the city that favored the plaintiff to the detriment of the city, citizens and subdivision. The plaintiff was a business associate of the elected official.
• An elected official misused a senior city staff position during an election in order to imply that the city staff endorsed the incumbent's campaign material. This is certainly an ethical violation of the highest form and an abuse of position.

We simply must avoid situations where friends and financial associates of an office holder are given preference over ordinary citizens because of demands of the office holder. We must avoid leadership that coerces city staff into unwise decisions based on the threat of their jobs. We must avoid leadership that creates even the perception of unethical behavior. This is a blatant problem in Colleyville.

One last thing, any "Ethical Resolution" is not worth the paper it's written on if its requirements are not mandatory and if there are no consequences, such as loss of office, for violating its provisions.

Now I challenge the elected officials who thought the "Ethics Resolution" was so important before the election to establish a citizens committee to frame a true Ethics Ordinance using the guidelines that I outlined above. If the elected officials do not do this now, they are tacitly admitting that their efforts April 17th were simply a "political game" that ended with the elections and will not start again until the next election. For the sake of the citizens, I expect more of our elected officials.