PORTNOY APPLAUDS COUNCIL ACTION ON ETHICS REFORM

September 18, 2016

Today, the Corinth City Council approved the ethics reform proposal allowing the newly-appointed Ethics Committee to impose civil fines for ethics code violations. Under the current ethics reform ordinance, the Ethics Committee may only send a letter asking a violator to stop the unethical behavior.

Councilman Portnoy, who helped draft the new proposal, applauded his fellow council members for voting in favor of the reform.

“The ethics reform ordinance passed today promotes appropriate guidelines to deter unethical behavior, behaviors that until this day have had no formal consequence and that have deteriorated the public trust,” said Portnoy.

He added, “Before City government can tackle the major issues of the city's growing debt, high tax rates and non-existent school district, we need a basic foundation of public trust. This proposal is a step in restoring that trust.”

But don’t get too excited, my friends. The above account is entirely fictional. I mean, since when was I elected to city council, and since when does Corinth have an ethics committee? We do not have one which is interesting because an ordinance was approved April 7, 2005 that requires council to appoint an ethics committee every two years, but four years later we still do not have one.

To find out why we have no ethics committee, please call Mayor Ruggiere at 940-498-0948 or you can email him at http://www.blogger.com/pruggiere@cityofcorinth.com%20 .