Council members learn about ethics

MONTE VISTA— Council members learned getting involved in personnel matters is unethical and may be a violation of the city’s charter. Tami Tanoue, general counsel and deputy executive director for the city’s insurance carrier CIRSA attended the Tuesday, Oct. 17 workshop of the city council and gave a special presentation titled “Ethics, Liability, and Best Practices for Elected Officials.”
The presentation focused on the difference between management and governance. Council members were reminded their duties were being the governing body and not managing city personnel. Tanoue explained the council is responsible for the “ends” of an outcome and the city manager and staff are responsible for the “means.” Overstepping these boundaries can lead to liability issues and disempowerment of staff, explained Tanoue.
“Monte Vista is one of the fortunate communities that has invested in a city manager report and model. There are still communities around the state that do not have this resource. It’s important to think about how to be most effective,” said Tanoue.
“Governance is policy-setting, big picture and forward looking, rather than making case-by-case decisions as issues arise or after-the-fact after a problem surfaces,” she said.
Tanoue shared a diagram of the what should be the perceived power structure in the local government. Ownership of the government should first be by the citizens, followed by the governing body, the management, supervisors, and then front line employees. This structure should be followed by the bottom up in dealing with complaints, and councilors should avoid jumping steps when issues come before them.
Following this structure of government is important explained Tanoue. “Breaching the separation will create its own concerns and negative consequences. It can be a violation of the structure contemplated in the charter. It can create chaos in in the chain of command and the city manager and supervisors can become disempowered. Once they are disempowered, accountability for problems can no longer be properly allocated... venturing outside of the council’s job descriptions can lead to personal liability,” stated Tanoue.
However, there may be times when the city council must become involved, explained Tanoue. One instance might be harassment complaints against any of the council’s direct reports. In Monte Vista this includes the city manager, city attorney and police chief. It should be a situation where a legal or policy requirement is implicated. “But any involvement needs to be approached from the ‘governance’ standpoint: what is our responsibility as the governing body? Otherwise you may be taking over the job of management and that is not your responsibility,” she said.
Tanoue also reviewed appropriate personal conduct between members of the city council as a group and between councilors and the community. “The incivility and divisiveness that characterize partisan politics need not be imported into nonpartisan local government. Municipal government is and should be proudly and avowedly ‘nonpartisan in the political sense,” said Tanoue.
The partisanship is not limited to political party divisions however, said Tanoue. As is seen in Monte Vista and other communities partisan divisions can include in crowd vs. outcrowd, old timers vs. newbies, younger vs. older and elected vs. staff. “If you’re viewing one another, staff or community members through the lens of partisanship, then unnecessary barriers may be established, preventing understanding of one another.” 


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