REPORT TO GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS COMMITTEE
SUBJECT
Title
Presentation by Outside Consultant for the Review of and Recommendations Regarding Potential Adoption of Ethics Commission and the Approval of Proposed Changes to City's Ethics Policies Previously Presented to Committee
Report
BACKGROUND
In June 2023, the Governance and Ethics Committee discussed the City's ethics program and referred the matter to the full Council. In July 2023, the City Council heard the item and directed staff to: Conduct a special meeting with the City Council to include AB1234 Ethics annual training with the City Attorney. The City Attorney's Office had already been working on preparing and scheduling an extensive AB 1234 training program. This first of these trainings took place on October 26, 2023; n a second training occurred on March 17, 2025. A third training, with further emphasis on the City's local rules, is now under development and is expected to be scheduled in late spring, 2026. The Council also directed staff to explore hiring a consultant for the review of existing City Ethics documents. Liebert Cassidy Whitmore (LCW) was retained to review existing City Ethics documents after a Request for Proposal process was completed to solicit qualified firms to review current behavioral standards and existing ethics documents per the City Council direction. Documents identified for review include the City Code of Ethics and Values (Attachment 1), Behavioral Standards for Councilmembers (Attachment 2), the City Council Admonition and Censure Policy (Council Policy 047) (Attachment 3), and the City's "revolving door" ordinance (Attachment 4). LCW previously met with the Committee to share proposed edits to existing policies.
The City received three proposals and selected Liebert Cassidy Whitmore (LCW), a law firm with a 40+ year history providing employment law services to public sector clients. LCWs background in the evaluation of ethical conflicts and the provision of ethics tr...
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