City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: MAY 18, 2016
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
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Consideration of the Alexandria City Council Code of Ethics and Conduct and Ethics Pledge.
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ISSUE: Consideration of proposed revised Code of Conduct and Ethics Pledge.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council receive and discuss the revised proposed Code of Conduct (Attachment 2) and Ethics Pledge (Attachment 3), and determine next steps.
DISCUSSION: On January 30, 2016, Council passed Resolution 2707 (the "Resolution") (see Attachment 4), creating the Ad Hoc Code of Conduct Review Committee (the "Committee") to be comprised of nine members. The Mayor and members of City Council appointed one member each and the City Manager, after publicly soliciting applications from candidates with expertise in ethics and government accountability, appointed two members. The Committee was charged with (1) writing a code of conduct and an ethics pledge; and (2) reviewing the findings in a report of the Commission on Integrity and Public Confidence in State Government to determine whether any of the recommendations in that report could be applied to the City.
The Committee met four times in March. Committee members reviewed the directives in the Resolution and legal requirements, shared ideas and resources, and discussed the spirit of the resolution -- promoting an ethical culture in City government. Individual members sought to clarify the scope of the resolution by identifying which government officials would be subject to the code of conduct. There was consensus that elected and appointed officials, including appointed members of boards and commissions, are those to whom the new code of conduct and ethics pledge would apply, not career city staff. The committee consulted with staff and acknowledged ...
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