Montgomery County adopts ethics code after long delay
2013 grand jury pushed for change, but policy doesn’t add anything new
Montgomery County commissioners adopted an ethics code for elected officials and high-ranking employees Tuesday, three years after a concerned grand jury urged them to take action.
But the 13-point policy, taken from a boilerplate, doesn’t impose any new restrictions on county leaders or establish a way to implement and enforce the ethical standards.
Despite voting for the code, county Judge Craig Doyal said the policy is “kind of overkill” because there are many state and local laws to thwart abuses in government.
“We already have rules and guidelines,” Doyal said. “But we did what we were asked to do.”
The move came in response to a 410th state District Court grand jury, which wrote an unusual letter in 2013 pressing for adoption of an ethics code after it concluded a lengthy investigation into possible improprieties involving $77 million in construction projects for the county.
The 12 jurors wrote that they were upset by the “pure disregard for best business practices and above-board dealing” by some officials and called for “major changes” in the way that the government operates.
No one involved with constructing the jail and mental health facility in Conroe was charged with a crime. District Attorney Brett Ligon has said that the two-year statute of limitations for conflicts of interest had expired before the grand jury’s inquiry began.
When asked by the Houston Chronicle two months ago about the long delay in adopting a policy, Doyal said it simply was forgotten in all the clamor over other county issues,
such as two road bond referendums during his first year in office.
The new code prohibits the county’s leaders from leveraging their positions for personal gain. And it requires them to disclose any conflicts of interest, business relationships or other dealings with those providing services or goods to the county.
But the policy doesn’t set any new restrictions, such as on gifts to officials. It also doesn’t require an ethics training program or create a committee with the ability to investigate complaints and levy fines for violations.
Doyal and the four other commissioners approved the ethics code without any discussion.
“It’s fluff, and it shouldn’t have taken them as long to get to this,” said Mark Bosma, the county’s former infrastructure chief whose allegations of impropriety prompted the grand jury’s investigation. “It’s just to make people believe they have done something. But they have to live up to it.”
The new policy is based on the ethics code of the Washington, D.C.-based International City/County Management Association, which advocates for good governance.