The Rancho Mirage City Council at this week’s meeting is set to discuss how it wants to handle a sudden vacancy on the council following the abrupt resignation of former Councilmember Meg Marker over the city’s new conflict of interest policy.
“It’s my opinion that this new resolution is designed to keep tired old men on the city council and prevent any successful business person from sitting on this council,” Marker said of the policy at the Sept. 19 meeting. “Such actions are vindictive, punitive and likely unconstitutional.”
The policy, as proposed and eventually adopted, prohibits the city from doing business with a business where council members have a financial conflict of interest and goes beyond the minimum ethical standards required by law with the goal of “eliminating temptation, avoiding the appearance of impropriety and assuring the public of the officials’ undivided and uncompromised allegiance,” according to the staff report.
In practice, City Manager Isaiah Hagerman said the policy would require every vendor the city does business with to fill out a form to say whether or not they’re doing business with a business belonging to a council person.
“If the answer to that is yes, then this policy would say the city doesn’t move forward any further and they don’t get any city funds,” he said, even if the city were legally able to contract with them.
For example, Hagerman said, it would be illegal for the city to contract with a company that then contracts with a business owned by a member of the council for that project, putting taxpayer dollars directly into a business where the council member has a financial interest.
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However, this policy goes a step beyond that to say that if a company does business with a company where a council member has a financial interest, even if it’s completely unrelated to the proposed contract with the city, the city would not move forward with that contract.
“Legally, nothing wrong with that,” he said. “Ethically, you would want to consider the perception of that relationship, because, frankly, being in the fiduciary capacity that you guys are in, you know, it’d be very easy for the perception of somebody in the public to say, ‘Well, of course, Company X got that contract, they’re paying a council member’s business, so of course, they got the city contract.’”
The policy further states that if the city is doing business with a company, a council member’s business should not go to the company to solicit business for their own private business.
“It could be completely innocent, and there’s no element of an illegal act,” Hagerman said. “However, you still deal with an ethical dilemma of what is the perception of that company involved when they’re, you know, potentially considering that this is a council member, and they do business with the city even when no threats or anything are present.”
Marker, who owns Marker Broadcasting, argued that the policy was not only bad for the city, but was also a “misguided attempt to keep successful business people from sitting on the city council.”
“As my last act on this city council, I am going on the record to speak out about this deplorable conduct,” she said. “In protest of this, I am making this statement on the record so that those who are responsible for this decision can be held accountable, not only by the voters, but a court of law, and I am resigning my position this day.”
Following Marker’s departure from the dais, the remainder of the council spoke in favor of the policy, ultimately adopting it 4-0.
“It protects the city, it protects each council member, and, more importantly, it protects the taxpayer dollars by eliminating any doubt about how city finances are being handled,” Councilmember Michael O’Keefe said. “So to me, this proposal is straightforward and unemotional and easy to understand. I can’t imagine why there’s any opposition to it.”
In other council action: The remaining city council members voted to implement a new $50,000 shop local community gift card program to support local businesses while keeping money in the community. “We just spent $50,000 in support of the business community in this city, and I’m very happy that we did that,” Mayor Steve Downs said after the vote.
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