During the Edmonds City Council Meeting on Aug. 18, a proposed revision to the city council’s “Code of Conduct” was presented. On review of the document I am concerned about the direction of the city council.
On the surface the document presents several guidelines that describe how elected leaders should behave when dealing with each other and other staff members. However, on deeper the review the language of the document is highly ambiguous where the interpretation of each section will be up to individual members of the city council.
Of greater concern is the section titled Compliance and Enforcement. This section introduces the concept of sanctions that a majority of the council can apply to an offending member. Coupling sanctions with ambiguous and subjective language is dangerous and will quickly lead to a mob mentality.
As written, the new policy is ripe for manipulation and it is not clear why now? I suggest that before the city council moves forward with a new policy, they should first be able to articulate the problem and demonstrate an understanding of the root cause.
Mark Haroldson
Edmonds
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