Code of Ethics Adjudicating Body - Regular Meeting

On behalf of Texas.

It would be my pleasure. Please stand. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin.

Call the meeting to order. They will run that tape or

Pursuant to the city council meeting rules adopted by resolution number two four zero seven six, members of all boards and commissions and the public are reminded that they must preserve order and decorum throughout the meeting. In that regard, members of all boards and commissions and the public are advised that any delay or disruption in the proceedings or a refusal to obey the orders of the city council or the presiding officer, constitutes a violation of these rules. The city of Riverside is committed to fostering a workplace that provides dignity, respect, and civility to our employees, customers, and the public they serve. Public comment is now open for this item. Call (951) 826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting.

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And for the consent calendar, have items two through three. Anyone makes a motion for the consent calendar?

I move that we approve this consent calendar.

Let's take a moment.

I second it.

Good. Did we just vote on the

motion carries unanimous

K. Discussion calendar. Audience participation is encouraged. Public comments are limited to three minutes. Item number four, the board of ethics work plan update.

Chair Vega and board members, this item is before you to review your annual work plans that you established last year as a board for you in your packet is the list of items that were identified as tasks on your work plan. Those that you completed last year and the ones that are ongoing. And we're asking that you review your work plan and establish a new work plan for the upcoming year and then after your discussion whether you want to add new items, new tasks to your list, remove some items that you also designate a chair or another member of the board to present your work plan to the governmental processes committee. With that chair Vega, I will turn it over to the floor.

Is there a copy of what we need to be working on?

So if you look at your packet on page two and if you don't have a packet I have one for you.

Page two.

Page two of the staff report identifies your task that you implemented, yes. That's the actual work plan but then also on the staff report. It also memorialized your task. And so far, the items that you've completed is you provided the training and advocacy to boards and commissions. I know that several of you attended boards and commission meetings and gave an overview of your scope.

So we put that as complete. You may want to change the status and make that ongoing. There will be boards and commissions that bring on new members this coming year. So it may be an opportunity to continue with that task. We can change the status of that if you like.

You also established a legal panel for the use of outside counsel. You established an ad hoc committee for that, and they did the research, came back with just using the same panel that our current city attorney's office have identified for you. So that task was completed. You did develop a template for your statement of findings for the pre conferences. One thing that we determined that will be ongoing is administering the duties and powers set forth by you.

And that just means your pre conferences and your hearings whenever you receive a complaint. Ongoing. Your annual review, you did that already. We can change that status to ongoing because you will do that again in August. Deliver an annual report. We have not done that. So that's something that you want to perhaps do. Maybe go to GPC with your status. How many complaints you received last year? What was the disposition of every complaint?

That can be an opportunity to engage with the standing committee. And then also creating public education videos regarding the code of ethics process. That's also pending. So there's an opportunity for some movement and some growth on your work plan, if you will. That's just, you you know, based on what you decide as a as a body to make any revisions to your work plan. And then after you do so, we just ask that you designate someone on your team to on your board to present it to the GPC.

So pretty much we have completed or ongoing pending Mhmm. Which is, you know, is a normal thing except for the fact that we I was you know, I have a question on the on securing the attorney.

I remember we we did that. What was the outcome of that again?

Doctor Benson, would you like me to defer to you on that response, or would you like me to?

You can answer it because I'm trying to remember what we did.

Okay. Based on your research, you received a list of attorneys from the city attorney's office that are already on their panel And you determine at that time that you would just rely on that list if it was ever established or determined that you need to seek outside attorney advice.

So as a board of ethics, we can directly go to that attorney within that list.

Right.

Oh, okay. So we have it. Yeah. Alright. That's good. That's good. Yeah. We could keep that as pending. So basically, it's just performing the annual review of the code of ethics that we are looking at. Everything else is pretty much set.

Well, in the videos

Oh, I method

of public. Yeah.

Yeah. What what was going on? I thought we we established that already.

I think I think it was remember Newman, myself, I I was nominated to be on that when I was gone. And Doctor. Benson was the third. So would be Member Newman and myself, I guess, being that committee or whatever.

So we'll just continue working on that?

Sure. So would that one be ongoing too, or will we change it from pending to ongoing? Just how would we do that?

I was thinking ongoing. Would it be appropriate for ongoing?

Didn't I sign up for that ad hoc committee as well for the video? Just creating the videos? I think I

We're losing one person.

So

so the video education, just educating the public and the annual review. Could go through our files from last year just review some of our aspects of what we have.

Did you say that mainly it's giving a count of how many complaints and how each one was settled? Is that the annual report? Is that the gist of it? I'm sorry. So for the annual report, that's mainly summarizing or listing how many complaints we received and what the disposition was of each one. That's the main That could be

the main topic for your annual report. That was just a recommendation. You can decide as a board what you would like to present as your annual report to the governmental processes committee.

So it's not too late to even add anything else that we

No, not at all. This is actually your opportunity to add, expand, remove Okay. Whatever you would like on your work plan for 2025. This is your opportunity to establish your 2025 work plan. So what I've heard so far is that we want to change the status on creating the public education videos to ongoing instead of pending? And then is there an appetite to change the status of providing training and advocacy to boards and commissions from complete to ongoing?

I think that as those boards get new people we rotate volunteers all the time. I think that that's something we should revisit if it's not every year but every couple years.

Right. That's what we right before you came in, Vice Chair Newman, that was the recommendation from staff that because you do have new cohorts every year that perhaps this may instead of the status being complete we change that to ongoing to allow for you to continue to go and visit boards and commissions and educate them on the code of ethics process. Agree.

So is there anything else that we because I think everything else is okay at this point. You know?

Madam Clerk, do you have another one of those handouts?

Does this call for any voting?

Vice chair excuse me, chair Vega inquired if this action requires a vote and that is a yes. But just to make sure that I have it codified correctly, your new work plan will consist of provide training and advocacy to boards and commissions, administer the duties of the the duties and power set forth by the RMC, perform an annual review of the code of ethics, which which recur annually, deliver an annual report to the city council in accordance with the BOE laws, and create method create a method for public education, including videos on the code of ethics process. So that will be the items that will be on your 2025 work plan.

I move that we accept that unless there's discussion or everyone's really quiet so I assume we're all sort of agreeing but so I move we accept that new work plan.

I second

I'm catching up a little bit. So, I think we talked about at one point also maybe when they have the little fair that they have usually on the nights that we have Board of Ethics. Yeah, I think that we talked about maybe once a year or twice a year maybe we could set up a table and talk to the constituents that may have questions about Board of Ethics. They might have some curiosity about our process and just what we do and all that. And it might do some good to garner interest in maybe people applying to be on the board since we're very short on, you know, we have vacant seats.

But I think kind of promoting who we are and what we do and if people do have questions about hey, always wondered about a complaint and what the process is or whatever. I think doing something like that maybe once a year, maybe twice.

And the public education thing, that could be part of what we come up with. And so far, you and I and Luis, I think, you remember that you were on that. Did you say the public the video? Did he sign up for that? I don't remember.

I think that.

And I think I was signed up when I wasn't here. So the three of us could maybe make that I mean, that could be part of our thing that we come up with is is recommending that because it is part of the public education. Could wrap it right into that.

Mhmm. And I do recall that being mentioned, you know, going out there and and dealing with the public directly in in that fashion too. And I remember, didn't we go last year? I think it was over at Orange Tree or Orange Terrace area when they had some sort of is it yep. Yeah. There was, I think, in Orange Terrace Park, they had some activities there. And I remember I remember being there. But that's what we need to do, something like that, to include that.

Okay. So there's a motion and a second on the floor. But just for clarification, it was a two part request from staff. It was one, to adopt review and adopt your new work plan for 2025 and to also designate a board member to present the work plan to the governmental processes committee. And just for information, they meet on the first Wednesday of every month at 9AM.

First Wednesday?

Yes.

So I can volunteer to do that. But I did want So then I was If everyone likes the idea, then I'd like to include it. This is a method for public education including videos. So I don't know if we want to add something to this.

I think it's probably open enough. The wording is open enough. It's education including videos. So it could include having a table. I think that could be I don't know if we need to call it out separately. Because I think it is part of that public education.

I think it would be nice to have it somewhere that we have it listed as a goal that we're trying to accomplish. Public outreach, yeah. Maybe we can do public education and outreach.

So does the mover of the motion and seconder of the motion accept that friendly amendment?

Yes. Okay,

now I move to adopt. Anew.

We voting now.

Yes, we're ready to vote. Motion carries unanimous.

K item number five the ad hoc committee to research subpoena power and authority to compel city employee representatives to appear as witness for board of ethics hearings update. And that'll be myself, and Luis that will we do it. We had an opportunity to speak with a couple of cities with the board of ethics or public ethics titles and commissions. And pretty much it was very interesting talking with them and finding some of the common alities that we have. A couple of cities were a little bit, of course, more sophisticated and bigger than ours.

But they pretty much gave us good advice and detailed some of the aspects of their operations in conducting their hearings and even enforcing some of the aspects of their policies, including having subpoena power. We're still researching some of these aspects and learning, in fact, more about what I mentioned in the past as far as our board being independent. And they a couple of the cities really agree in terms of having subpoena power and the independence. But again, we're still searching that and looking at some similar cities. We were suggested Oakland was one and then even Detroit.

And so we we're continuing with the process there. Is there anything else you can add on to that, Luis?

As Gil has mentioned, we have been doing quite a bit of research and speaking to other mostly executive directors for the board of ethics or commissions in these cities. What we've learned is, you know, they usually go work as a go between between the board or commission and city council. So that's what makes these boards and commissions more independent is, you know, the you know, a lot of these executive directors are, hired or hired by the board of ethics themselves. Obviously these are city officials that they work as a public official but we're not a public official, but they work in the city as city staff. Obviously, we don't intend to model ourselves exactly as these cities do because some of them are bigger.

But it is interesting to do a lot of this research and see how these commissions and boards are structured and what we through our research are able to model ourselves after and how we are able to, you know, implement some of the aspects of these commissions and boards to our own, not just the subpoena power, but obviously, the structure and everything like that. In some cases, the mayor is actually a part of the board of ethics. So there's a lot of interesting aspects to all of this stuff. We're still doing quite a bit of research. We're still compiling a lot of information.

And how their administrative subpoenas work and how they're enforced and how in the future this may be something down the line that we may able to seek through the city charter and the voters. But again, it's learning how these cities are structured, their board of ethics and commissions are structured, and just how it all works so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel or have the trouble of well how does it work, how do we enforce it. There's a lot of these cities already have a structure in place and it's already been tested and tried and it works for them. And one of the main things that was always brought up is how important it is to have that subpoena power for the residents when it comes to filing complaints whether it be for documentation or public officials, city staff, things like that. So it is very interesting all the information that we're getting and it's it's there's still quite a bit that needs to be done, but we are making some progress and headway in meeting with these individuals from other cities.

And just to add on to the fact that these city entities don't say that they've used subpoena power all the time. It's not something that's commonly used, but it's a delicate process. It's a very particularly delicate process. And that's why we're looking into it even further. But hopefully, won't take us long.

It's meeting the people as well. Some of the cities do talk to one another. And somehow I'm thinking, why isn't Riverside involved? So we need we need to look at that. But it it opened up it opened up our eyes to the fact of what we need to do to see. But it may involve some policy changes. But again, we're looking into it further.

Well, I just want to thank you guys for all the work that you guys have put in. I mean, you put in a considerable amount of work and all that you're learning. So thank you for doing all that you're doing with that.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Any questions?

Okay.

Next item, number six, cancellation of 03/06/2025 regular meeting.

Chair vacant, board member, this item is for you today to request that you consider canceling your regular board meeting on March 6. Reason being, as you know, every year, the city hosts a boards and commissions training and the city honestly hosting city council meetings, standing committee meetings and all of the board and commission meetings. The real estate and the dates are very limited. And so we're requesting that you cancel your meeting to make way for the boards and commissions meetings so we can have that training on the same day. So you wouldn't be completely off the hook because we'll ask that you attend the training.

It's just that you won't have your board of ethics meeting. And as far as I know, there's no items on your no items on your pending master calendar. So you could cancel your meeting without any disruption to your product your your your your The matters on your calendar your productivity. Thank you.

What specific type of training are we going through? That can that be detailed in some ways or?

The boards and commissions training? Yeah, so the boards and commissions training you go over several we'll go over several matters. How to run a meeting efficiently, the code of ethics, the Brown Act, the Sunshine Ordinance, a little message from the city manager about volunteerism and what it looks like to assist the city in all things legislative matters and and your role in as an advisory committee. So it's a two hour training, and it consists of those topics.

So it's the training that we had before. Yes. Much. Okay. Do we

need a motion? Yes. I'll make a motion to dismiss the meeting.

I second.

Motion carries unanimous. Alright.

Denise, may I ask if I think we've asked before but any changes on filling the seats that we have vacant? Anything coming down the pipeline?

I'm sorry. I have an update for you.

I put you on the spot. It's okay. I promise

I will do is put it in a memo form and send it to you via email by tomorrow, close of business. Is that okay?

Totally fine. I put you on the spot. It's okay. I'm just curious if we're getting help. Because we're tight on quorum.

Right. And right before you came, Minson did make an announcement. It's good news, but it's bittersweet because she'll be leaving the board for to go be with family in another space. I'll let her tell you. But so we are losing a board member.

Good news for her, but bad news

for her.

Yes. Well with that, I just want to say I have truly enjoyed being a part of this board and working alongside you guys and serving the community. I intend to do that in McKinney, Texas as well. But it has been just an honor for me. And so I'm gonna miss you guys. It's been really

Could we extend residency all the way up? I

have a big old giant house with a guest room and an en suite. They Let me know what

you wanna Zoom. We can Zoom

in or you Google.

You could come stay. Hey.

Wow. Well,

thank you for serving.

Thank you.

It's been my pleasure.

Okay, without further ado, anything else that we need to discuss? Anything pending?

No, no one has a report on any meetings they've attended.

Do we have an election coming up for our board member, like the new chair and all that? Is that annual? Every two years?

Yes. So it is scheduled. That's the one matter that you would have done in March. So in this case, you will elect your chair and vice chair in in April. Okay.

Is there anything else before we adjourn in tears? Meeting adjourned.

It's been awesome.

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