To: Councilmember Clark (sally.clark@seattle.gov)
From: Nancy Eitreim, President, League of Women Voters
Date: July 31, 2006
CC: nick.licata@seattle.gov; richard.conlin@seattle.gov; david.della@seattle.gov;jan.drago@seattle.gov;
peter.steinbrueck@seattle.gov
Councilmember Clark,
I understand that your committee will be reveiwing legislation proposed by Mayor Nickels to make changes to the Ethics Code with respect to members of Boards and Commissions. A representative of the League of Women Voters of Seattle participated in the meetings in the Mayor's office to develop the proposed changes.
The league opposes the proposed revisions to the Ethics Code. We believe that Boards and Commissions have a substantive role in city policy and budget decisions. As such, the members should come under the same code as city employees. The proposed changes weaken the code by only requiring disclosure and not recusal when there are appearances of conflict of interest.
Please keep us apprised of your schedule for your committee meetings and public hearing on this legislation. We are interested in testifying on the issue.
Please review the statement as sent to Regina LaBelle in the Mayor's Office and the list of ad hoc committee members copied below.
Nanyc Eitreim
President League of Women Voters of Seattle
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To: Regina La Belle
Members of the adhoc committee include: tony@homesightwa.org;marshallsj@comcast.net;
plambros@plymouthhousing.org; michelle.chen@seattle.gov; lbsteers@comcast.net;gary.keese@seattle.gov; claudia.arana@seattle.gov; bill.block@metrokc.gov;Barbarae.wilson@seattle.gov
The League of Women Voters of Seattle supports a Code of Ethics that holds public employees and members of Boards and Commissions to the highest ethical standard. The LWV Board of Directos believes that the Ethics Code as currently written provides that high standard. As such, the Board does not support the changes proposed by the ad hoc committee. The key issue for the Board was requiring disclosure only instead of disqualification for the appearance of conflict of interest provision, Section 4.16.70, 6b. While disclosure is important and would add openness to the commissions' process, the Board felt it weakened the Ethics Code. We would urge you to add disclosure of potential conflicts of interest prior to joining a commission as a separate requirement, not related to appearance of conflict of interest. This is the requirement in King County.
As we have stated before, the League is very troubled by the appointment process. Many members of the Planning Commission, the Seattle Center Advisory Commission, and the Housing Levy Oversight committee have inherent conflicts of interest. We urge the Mayor to broaden his search for volunteers. We understand that some of the requirements in specific ordinances constrain the search for committtee members. However, we believe that commission members should represent the broad public interest. We do not agree with the concept that all members have to have technical knwoledge of the subject of the commission.
I want to thank you for coming to the office to provide us the opportunity to discuss the proposed legislation. The discussion at the Board meeting was lengthy and quite substantial. I believe that all sides of the question were fully explored. While our decision is not what you wanted, we hope that you will continue to seek League of Women Voters' input on important issues.
Nancy Eitreim, President
Lucy Gaskill-Gaddis, Action Chair