Yakima ethics code proposals: limit to council, screen claims

A proposed Yakima City Council ethics code would be limited to members of the council and complaints would be screened in closed-door executive sessions, a council subcommittee decided Monday.

Wary of creating burdensome regulations and duplicating state law, the council's Rules and Procedures Committee began hashing out an ethics code that was first proposed by Councilwoman Sonia Rodriguez earlier this summer.

Council members asked assistant city attorney Jim Mitchell to begin drafting guidelines similar to the ethics code used by the U.S. House of Representatives. The committee -- composed of Rodriguez, Micah Cawley and Bill Lover -- agreed that only members of the City Council, and not city employees, would be subject to the code.

Much of the discussion centered on the subject of "accountability," meaning who would investigate or adjudicate ethics complaints.

Several committee members, particularly Cawley, objected to the creation of a standing committee or panel. Cawley said he still feels the sting of an unsustained ethics complaint against him last year during the appointment process for an open seat on the council.

"If you're under investigation, you're a bad person in our society," he said, suggesting an ethics code should include "heavy handed" penalties for false or malicious complaints.

He expressed concern that an ethics code might prompt a flood of complaints, but Councilwoman Maureen Adkison, an alternate member of the committee, questioned that assumption.

Mitchell said he had researched the ethics code adopted by the city of Spokane and found that few complaints had been filed.

The Rules Committee agreed that the full council may want to screen complaints in executive session. Such sessions are secret in nature and allow elected officials to meet behind closed doors.

In an interview after the meeting, Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington Executive Director Rowland Thompson questioned the legality of screening ethics complaints in executive session.

Thompson, whose organization represents the state's daily newspapers, said he was unsure what members of the City Council's Rules Committee hoped such a process would achieve. By state law, elected officials must state why they are going into executive session and are prohibited from taking action in such meetings.

"They're trapped essentially," he said. "All they can do is take advice. ... They just have to sit there. They can ask some questions I suppose ... but they can't provide direction."

* Chris Bristol can be reached at 509-577-7748 or at cbristol@yakimaherald.com.