Laurel City Council members repealed the city's ethics regulations and introduced legislation at their July 11 meeting to implement new state ethics regulations Maryland cities are required to adopt by October.
The ethics regulations provide guidelines that elected and appointed officials, city employees, lobbyists and those doing business with the city must abide by in terms of conflicts of interest, financial disclosures, gift acceptance and hiring practices, and requirements for elective office candidates.
"We will repeal (current ethics laws) and enact the state-mandated ethics law with two additions," City Administrator Kristie Mills said at a July 6 City Council work session. "Our (current) nepotism rules are stronger than the state law and so are our abuse of positions. We're ahead of the game."
In the ethics legislation the council is considering, a city official or employee cannot lobby for the hiring, promotion or advancement of a family member for a full- or part-time position with the city. The law does not cover officials' or employees' friends, city appointees or those who marry each other while they are both employed by the city.
In terms of abuse of position rules, the legislation prohibits elected or appointed officials from using the powers of their office to advance their own political interests or those of another person, or a private or nonprofit entity. The regulations also bar officials from soliciting money, gifts, favors or contracts from someone involved in a city zoning or permit issue.
In addition, under the regulations, city officials must file statements of any gifts valued at more than $20 or a series of gifts totaling more than $100 from anyone doing business with the city.
The city's Ethics Commission must weigh-in on the legislation before it is sent to the state Ethics Commission by the Oct. 1 deadline.
"The Ethics Commission is prepared to recommend adopting the rules," Mills said.
Mayor Craig Moe told the council that when Laurel's current ethics regulations were enacted, they were sent to state officials for review and that he feels good about the revised rules in the legislation introduced on Monday.
"We've always said if there were weaknesses in our laws, we'd want to change them," Moe said at the work session. "I feel comfortable about what we've been doing. I feel confident as we move forward there won't be any problems."
After the rules are approved by the council and in effect for a year, Mills said they will let state officials know what does and doesn't work, and request any changes they feel are warranted at that time.
Other legislation passed
In other action at Monday's meeting, council members approved legislation that will require mortgage lenders to give the city a five-day notice of a pending foreclosure of a dwelling in the city or face a $100-a-day fine until they comply with the new law. The regulation was initiated to target the large number of foreclosed properties that are boarded-up or have unkempt grounds in neighborhoods throughout the city. The legislation requires lenders to provide city officials with contact information on the properties set for foreclosure so they know whom to contact if the property is not maintained properly.
The council also passed legislation that will allow developer Michael Collins to sell a parcel of land at his Park Place development, near the corner of Gorman Road and Seventh Street, to 7-Eleven, which plans to build a 3,200-square-foot convenience store there. Collins had planned to build a third building of the Park Place complex at the site. The complex currently consists of two, four-story brick buildings that house a first floor of retail shops, two floors of offices and a top floor of loft-style residences.
Collins said the sluggish economy made selling the land a better option. The deal needed the council's approval because the property is in a revitalization overlay zone, which, with the council's approval, allows developers to increase the density of their projects in exchange for amenities city officials desire.
The new 7-Eleven store will be built to the right of the 250-year-old swamp white oak tree at Park Place that provided shade for the all-black baseball teams that played on a field there in the 1950s. Collins said he still plans to try to save the tree, and install picnic tables, a walkway and plaque at the tree's site.
The council also approved a contract for sidewalks to be installed on Van Dusen Road between Route 198 and Arbory Way North and a $51,000 contract was approved for a new roof at the Anderson-Murphy Armory.