October 12, 2001

An Ethical Debate:
Proposed code for councilors draws fire.
Amesbury News– By JASON CONWAY

A proposal to establish a code of ethics for the Municipal Council caused lots of heated debate but little in the way of results Tuesday night.

The proposed code, sponsored by Councilors Thomas Iacobucci, Tracy Brown, Roger Deschenes, Debra Dow and Council President Albert Sears, drew fire from at least one member of the council as well as from some residents in the audience.

The town charter originally called for a code of ethics for elected and appointed officials and employees of the town, that was supposed to be drafted and proposed by the mayor. In the five years since the charter was established, no code of ethics has been proposed, and some municipal councilors decided it was time to draft their own code. Councilor Iacobucci drafted much of the proposed code presented Tuesday night, which he drew from similar codes enacted by the cities of Cambridge and Chelsea.

After hearing a summary of the proposed code, some councilors took issue with the wording and overall purpose of the code.

Mayoral candidate David Hildt, on the other hand, came forward with his endorsement of the code. " I support it whether it has come from the mayor or the council, " he said. " Elected officials must be beyond reproach. "

Hildtís opponent in the upcoming election for mayor, Councilor-at-large Joseph Faro adamantly opposed the proposal, however. " Weíre allowing the executive function of the mayor to be taken away by the council, " Faro said. " Whatís wrong with the rules we have now? Youíre acting as if these crimes have already been committed. "

Faro also questioned the legality of the councilís actions, and noted that the mayor would seek legal counsel on the proposal, which would only cost the town more money. Faro also questioned how accurate it was to draw from codes passed by cities like Cambridge and Chelsea, with population of 60,000 for a town like Amesbury that has a population of 16,000. Faro suggested petitioning the mayor to write the code.

Several residents and Faro raised concern with Section 6 of the code, that states: " Any gift in violation of the provisions of Chapter 268A of the General Laws shall be surrendered to the Town Treasurer, who shall add the gift to the inventory of Town property. In the event such illegal gift is of entertainment, food, beverage, or other consumable, the municipal official who received the gift shall pay the fair market value of the gift to the Town Treasurer. "

Those concerned characterized it as ridiculous that an individual would have to report to the town treasurer every time they had a cup of coffee with a contractor, or received a pen from a new real estate agent. In response, Councilor Dow told members, " Weíre trying to set a standard here, showing how we will perform before the public. "

The council voted to split the ordinance and continue the debate until the Nov. 13 meeting, at which time councilors will debate the approval of the code of ethics as one issue, and part of Section 6 of the code as another issue. The portion of Section 6 that was split deals with the Clean Elections Ordinance.