Public to weigh in on updates to ethics code

NORWALK — Members of the public will have a chance to weigh on proposed changes to the city’s code of ethics on Tuesday.

The proposed updates include how the Board of Ethics reviews complaints, what precipitates the appointment of an investigating panel and confidentiality surrounding the complaints.

The main updates would be allowing for consequences to those who are “vexatious filers” and those who violate the policies of confidentiality.

Board members have said that some people have been “abusing” ethics complaints and using them for political gain.

“The purpose of the Board of Ethics is to not be used as a weapon,” chair Michael Church said at the Ordinance Committee’s meeting in April.

Any person can file an ethics complaint, according to the code, if they believe an employee, officer or other official has violated the city’s code of ethics. Once the complaint is submitted, the Board of Ethics reviews the complaints to determine if they accept it and move it forward for passage or if they reject it.

One of the proposed changes includes adding language that could ban a person for a certain length of time if it was determined that they brought an ethics complaint in bad faith.

“Upon the rejection of a complaint, if the Board of Ethics makes a finding that the complaint was vexatious and brought in bad faith, it may provide appropriate relief commensurate with the conduct,

including but not limited to an order that the Board of Ethics need not accept future complaints from the filer for a specified period of time.”

If the complaint is accepted the board puts together an investigating panel to look into the charges brought. The whole process is primarily kept confidential, except that a person who has a complaint brought against them can request the investigation and hearing be open to the public.

The proposed changes also give the board the ability to dismiss complaints if they are made public by the person submitting them.

“The complaints have always been confidential, but as you are all well aware, sometimes these things end up on the front page of The Norwalk Hour and they’re not supposed to,” board member Kara Murphy said at the Ordinance Committee’s last meeting. “So we have put more teeth into the language so that’s there‘s consequence to breaking confidentiality.”

The code language reads that a person is “bound to the requirement of confidentiality” and that a violation of this “whether direct or indirect, shall be grounds to ban the Complainant from filing complaints in the future.”

The public hearing on the proposed changes will take place at the Ordinance Committee meeting, beginning at 7 p.m. in Room 231 in City Hall.