Aberdeen's city council approved a new ethics ordinance and a bond resolution connected with refinancing city hall and Ripken Stadium.
Besides the ethics ordinance, with eight amendments that make the state-mandated document more specific to Aberdeen, the council also approved a resolution to issue bonds up to $9.5 million for refunding of city infrastructure.
Councilwoman Ruth Ann Young said she was pleased to see the ethics ordinance pass, especially with the issue of lobbying and people coming to the city with business.
"I am delighted that we are working on this. I have been thinking along this line for quite a long while," she said. "I think it's something that is needed. It's something that's been done in Harford County for some time. They have had much broader and much more strict guidelines, I think, and that's where we first got the idea that we needed to spruce ours up."
The council approved a preliminary site plan for a retail portion of North Gate Business Park, off Route 22.
Louis Schaffer, of Frederick Ward Associates, said it would have three retail buildings built in phases. None of them have any prospective users.
The developer, COPT Properties, also proposes 95 parking spaces instead of the required 75, and 41 percent open space instead of the required 15 percent.
The water demand "is kind of hard to fix at the moment," Schaffer said, explaining they are working with the public works department on that.
The council also approved a funds transfer from seized funds to the Aberdeen Police Department of $28,101 that Chief Henry Trabert said is needed to replace and update hardware and software for surveillance and security, including the holding area and the parking lot.
Also, "It will help us put surveillance into Festival Park," Trabert said.