FORT WORTH -- People serving on temporary city task forces can't be accused of violating Fort Worth's ethics ordinance just by sitting on the panels under controversial changes to the ordinance the City Council approved Tuesday.
The council voted 8-1, with Mayor Pro Tem W.B. "Zim" Zimmerman voting no, to approve the changes after a two-year review prompted by a citizen's complaint against gas company employees who were serving on a city air pollution board.The council also voted Tuesday to create a 12-member volunteer task force that will look into alternative funding sources for the arts and Fort Worth Sister Cities, whose city allocations were pared for 2013. The task force includes several people with ties to the arts and Sister Cities, including the financier and benefactor Robert Bass, one of two final additions Tuesday.Mayor Betsy Price said the ordinance changes were "fair to those who serve and fair to our citizens."Critics said the changes introduce more conflict by allowing industry people to serve on task forces -- newly authorized by Tuesday's vote -- that deliberate on issues affecting their business."I assume you all have read this, and I don't think you have," Jim Ashford, a Fort Worth resident, told council members, referring to the new ordinance.Ashford's complaint alleged that the gas employees were in violation of the city's ethics code merely by serving on the pollution board.The ethics commission sided in 2010 with Ashford, but the council subsequently dismissed the commission members and named new ones who threw out the ethics complaint.Price and other council members said the creation of the task force category and protecting its volunteers were necessary to allow the city to quickly collect feedback from experts."The advisory committees don't actually vote on anything," other than recommendations, Councilman Danny Scarth said in an interview. "They're not voting on city contracts; they're not voting on taxes or fees. I could call somebody up and ask for their opinion, but this is a much more formal process."In explaining his vote against the change, Zimmerman said the ordinance "gives the perception that there is something that we do not want to hold people accountable for."The rule changes included the addition in the last week of language requiring task forces to adhere to the Texas Open Meetings Act, posting meetings 72 hours in advance and taking minutes.Critics of the ordinance changes requested the open meetings requirements. The Texas statute exempts advisory committees.The new rules streamline the complaint hearing process. The city attorney would no longer testify before the ethics review commission unless summoned and no longer render opinions on ethics complaints.The ordinance changes also provide that a written opinion by the city attorney, if requested by a city officer, employee or board member, is an "absolute defense" to an ethics complaint if the opinion was requested by the person affected and provided within 15 business days of the request.Under the changes, the ethics committee is required to dismiss a complaint if it finds that a city attorney's written opinion was the basis for the conduct in question. An appeal of such a ruling could be filed with the city secretary, who would determine its validity and designate an officer to convene a public hearing.Critics of the ordinance say the city attorney, who is the city's chief legal officer under the Fort Worth charter, has too strong a role under the changes, going as far as to say the city's ethics commission should be able to hire and oversee its own independent staff member."Government ethics is about trying to preserve trust in government, and therefore how things look in public is more important than how things look in law," Robert Wechsler, research director for the nonprofit City Ethics group based in Connecticut, said in an interview."It's not that the city attorney couldn't do a good job, but they tend to be very legal in their view of what government ethics is," he said.Councilman Sal Espino said the ordinance changes establish "clear guidelines," including checks on the city attorney.The ordinance allows for the appeal of an ethics commission complaint dismissal based on a written city attorney opinion, and it allows the ethics commission to question that opinion.Arts task forceThe council held up its creation of the arts task force for two weeks to conduct a public hearing on the ethics ordinance last week.The committee includes Chairman Robert Benda, chief executive, Westwood Contractors; Bass; Becky Renfro Borbolla, a Renfro Foods executive and Sister Cities and Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County board member; Johnny Campbell, CEO of Sundance Square; Mike Hyatt, senior vice president, UBS Financial Services and Sister Cities board member; and Greg Ibanez, an architect and Fort Worth Art Commission member.Other members: Brian Newby, a Fort Worth attorney and former chief of staff to Gov. Rick Perry; Whit Smith, founder of the WhitneySmith Co. and chairman of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce; Lori Thomson, an art teacher at Carter-Riverside High School and co-owner of Firehouse Pottery and Gallery; Jennifer Trevino, UNT Health Science Center vice president and Arts Council board member; Tracy Williams, assistant director of the Professional Development Center at TCU's Neeley School of Business; and Julie Wilson, vice president of corporate development at Chesapeake Energy.Scott Nishimura,817-390-7808Twitter: @JScottNishimuraHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
