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E-mail This StoryAcknowledging that the city’s Code of Ethics ordinance needed to be dusted off and updated, Frisco City Council members agreed at Tuesday night’s regular meeting that a committee independent from the council should be formed to revise the ordinance created in 2000.
Council members did not take a vote, but the general consensus was that no committee member or liaison should come from the council itself and any council review of the update should be carried out at arm’s length, Mayor Maher Maso said.
“It’s going to take some time to review a document of this complexity,” Maso said.
New council members had been seeking advice from City Attorney Richard Abernathy on if they should recuse themselves from council discussions and votes involving organizations or boards on which they served or businesses they operated. Also, the city in April reviewed the first ethics complaint filed since the ordinance’s inception.
Abernathy noted that the Code of Ethics ordinance did not include wording that detailed whether council members would be liable if they violated the code because they followed the city attorney’s advice. He also said that the code may conflict with state ordinances.
“If [the code is] not maintained, it provides ambiguity,” said council member Bart Crowder, who was serving in his first meeting after being elected in a June 14 run-off.
Council members also appointed Ron Patterson as interim city secretary until a replacement for former city secretary Nan Parker is hired.
