COUNCIL REJECTS RECOMMENDED ETHICS PANEL

The Cape Girardeau City Council says it won't let voters create an ethics commission because it could lead to a witch hunt.

The council, however, will allow voters to decide the fate of term limits.

The city's Charter Review Committee had recommended 10 amendments to the city's governing document, including creation of an ethics commission and limiting council and mayoral terms. The charter can only be amended with voter approval.

At its retreat at Black Forest this weekend, the council informally revised some of the recommendations and suggested it would place five of the items on a future ballot.

Those five would:

-- Prohibit the mayor and councilmen from serving more than two, consecutive, full terms. It also would impose a two-year residency requirement for council posts. The four-year residency requirement would remain in effect for the mayor's post.

-- Regulate the municipal government's intra-fund loans.

-- Require disclosure of all city government debt.

-- Amend utility franchise regulations.

-- Add a preamble to the charter that calls for ethical behavior on the part of city officials and employees.

The council voiced support for measures that would limit fee and tax hikes without voter approval and establish an emergency reserve fund. But council members said they would rather deal with those measures by ordinance than seek to amend the charter.

No date has been set for an election.

Mayor Al Spradling III said it could be next April before any charter amendments are submitted to the voters.

The Charter Review Committee wanted an ethics commission, whose seven members would be appointed by the council. The commission would have investigated any allegations of ethical violations on the part of city officials, including the city manager, mayor and councilmen.

Charter Review member Keith Russell was disappointed by the council's action. Russell said Charter Review members saw the commission as a way to deal with any future complaints about conflicts of interest involving the council or other city officials.

"We saw it as an ability for the council to remove itself from, at least initially, having to be concerned about policing its own members," Russell said.

Elected officials often are perceived as looking out only for their own interests, he said.

Charter Review member and former councilman David Barklage said some formal system is needed to address conflicts of interest.

Past councils have experienced such problems, he said Saturday.

"If an ethical problem or conflict of interest occurs and the council is unable to deal with it, we have sacrificed the integrity and capability of local government to govern," Barklage said.

But during Friday's retreat, Councilman Tom Neumeyer said creation of a commission could lead to a witch hunt.

City Attorney Warren Wells said it could also lead to due-process problems because it doesn't provide a hearing for the person accused of ethical violations or wrongdoing.

The state's Open Meetings Law could make it illegal for the commission to conduct its activities in secret, Wells said.

Spradling said the state already has an ethics commission, which has the power to investigate complaints brought against city or state officials.

The state law also allows the commission to advise local governments in developing codes of ethics and methods of disclosing conflicts of interest.