According to an
article yesterday in the Seguin (TX) Gazette, there will be a
perfectly ordinary local government ethics occurrence next Monday in
Seguin, a town of 25,000 outside San Antonio: the city's ethics
commission will meet in closed session to discuss a recently filed
ethics complaint.
There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this. But there are two serious problems here. One is that, according to the article, "the Ethics Commission generally meets only when an ethics complaint has been filed. The commission is required to hold an annual meeting in June to elect officers." Actually, the commission meets "when necessary to carry out its responsibilities." According to the city's website, the EC met only once each year from 2009 to 2012, all but once in June, to elect officers. In 2013, it doesn't appear to have met at all. In other words, the EC clearly does not have many responsibilities, and is not even being employed for the purpose of enforcement.
The second problem is that, according to the city attorney (who is both the city's ethics officer and the EC's counsel and staff), he cannot comment on the complaint because it doesn’t become public information until after it has been acted upon by the EC.
There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this. But there are two serious problems here. One is that, according to the article, "the Ethics Commission generally meets only when an ethics complaint has been filed. The commission is required to hold an annual meeting in June to elect officers." Actually, the commission meets "when necessary to carry out its responsibilities." According to the city's website, the EC met only once each year from 2009 to 2012, all but once in June, to elect officers. In 2013, it doesn't appear to have met at all. In other words, the EC clearly does not have many responsibilities, and is not even being employed for the purpose of enforcement.
The second problem is that, according to the city attorney (who is both the city's ethics officer and the EC's counsel and staff), he cannot comment on the complaint because it doesn’t become public information until after it has been acted upon by the EC.