Yakima council member proposes ethics code

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Spurred by last month's City Council open-meetings controversy, Yakima Councilwoman Sonia Rodriguez on Wednesday announced in a news release that she plans to propose a binding code of ethics for the council.

Rodriguez, who said she'll bring the matter up at the council's next meeting July 7, said the ethics code she has in mind is based on Richland's.

That ethics code, seen as a model by the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington, expressly bars council members from doing things such as profiting from their positions and disclosing information from closed council sessions.

"It increases the public's trust in government," said Rodriguez, who was appointed to the council last December.

She envisions a scenario in which council members form an ethics committee, as outlined by the Richland ordinance, and wield the power to censure or otherwise punish ethics violators. The council, with help from city legal staff, would have to work out such specifics before the code could be instituted, she said.

One thing noticeably absent from the Richland ordinance is any language dealing with Open Public Meetings Act violations.

In May, four members of the Yakima City Council -- Rick Ensey, Kathy Coffey, Micah Cawley and Bill Lover -- were hit with a lawsuit alleging a violation of that act. Public records indicated that Ensey and Coffey had lined up the support of Cawley and Lover, through a series of
e-mails outside of the public eye, to change the city's budget policy.

The council rescinded the change within days, and the suit was settled early this month, with the city paying $2,500.

Mayor Dave Edler said Wednesday that he likes Rodriguez's idea and believes the council needs to reinforce a commitment to ethical behavior.

"We've just walked through a season where we had to deal with that particular issue," he said. "It's a piece of our reality. Having a code would be something I would welcome."

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.

* View Richland's code of conduct: http://www.mrsc.org/ords/r5c2_26.aspx