As a candidate for the District Five City Council seat, I believe that I, owe it to the voters of Greensboro to provide full disclosure concerning where I stand on major issues affecting the City of Greensboro.
In the Sunday, June 19, News & Record, Allen Johnson, Editorial Page Editor, posed some questions to the announced candidates for Greensboro City Council. In this and future communications, I will specifically address those questions, as well as others that I think are important to the residents of this city. First I will talk about a “Local Government Code of Ethics.”
In my view, holding an elective office, such as a seat on City Council, puts the elected official in a fiduciary position relative to the citizens of the jurisdiction from which the office holder was elected. A fiduciary is one who is placed in a position where he/she is entrusted with duties to be performed on behalf of another person or persons. Under the law, a fiduciary is required to act “with the highest level of good faith, loyalty and diligence on behalf of” the party for whom the fiduciary acts. The fiduciary is required to place the other party’s interest ahead of the fiduciary’s personal interest. Since I believe that holding a seat on City Council places the Council member in a fiduciary relationship with the citizens of the city, I strongly support a Greensboro Municipal Code of Ethics.
The primary emphasis of a Greensboro Municipal Code of Ethics, as it relates to City Council members, should be on avoiding conflicts of interest by Council members. The Code of Ethics should include rules to require that Council members shall not participate in action taken on any matters in which they have a conflict between what is in their business or personal best interests and in the best interests of the citizens that they represent. There are a number of examples already written into law that prohibit various parties (such as judges, lawyers, CPAs) from performing certain duties when they have conflicts of interest. Most of these require a person to recuse him/herself from acting when even the appearance of conflict of interests exists. The appearance of conflict of interests exists in a situation in which an average person looking at the situation would likely determine that a conflict exists.
There is a difference between conflicts of interest and political philosophy. Suppose a candidate for City Council who is a business person runs on a platform of unlimited growth for the city, because he/she believes that city growth will help his/her business in general. If this Council member is elected and votes for every city expansion proposal, and his/her business flourishes as the city grows, this does not constitute a conflict of interest. If that same Council member promotes and votes for building a new city hall, that his/her construction company is going to bid on constructing, that is a conflict of interest.
The Greensboro Municipal Code of Ethics should also include other elected officers and employees of the city as well. For administrative officials the Code should include provisions to cover fraud, misappropriation, malfeasance and misfeasance in office. As a member of City Council I will foster and support an effort to write an effective Greensboro Municipal Code of Ethics that covers all elected City officials and City employees.
I welcome responses to my position.
Also, see my web site at www.boyettforcitycouncil.com.
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