ETHICS PANEL NAMED

More than 14 months after Cape Girardeau voters approved a city charter amendment creating a city Ethics Commission, the members have been appointed.

Monday night, the City Council appointed as members: Mark Slinkard, 44, a painting foreman and estimator, and Stephen Stigers, 42, an anesthesiologist, to five-year terms; Bo Shantz, 37, a State Farm Insurance agent and Dennis Dobson, 55, technical manager at Lone Star Industries, to four-year terms; William Donnelly, 68, a semi-retired insurance consultant, to a three-year term; John Egbuka, a 40-year-old cook, to a two-year term; and William Killian, 50, a medical technician, to a one-year term.

After these terms run out, the ordinance calls for each member to be appointed to a five-year term.

Slinkard said he was motivated to serve not because he thinks current city officials are corrupt. "We've had some pretty honest people" in city government, he said, but "you have to have the apparatus in place before you need it."

After voters passed the charter amendment, the committee still had some obstacles to overcome before it could form.

First, the council passed an ordinance prohibiting anyone on the commission from being state or local government employees, employed as a lobbyist, a member of any other government board, an officer of a political organization, or a participant in a political campaign within a year of their appointment. These requirements, intended to make sure the members were above reproach, eliminated many of those who normally apply for commissions.

The ordinance calls for the members to submit financial disclosure forms within 30 days of their appointment.

The council set a March 1, 1997, deadline for applying for a position on the commission, but only four applied. The council then set an April 15 deadline, which yielded the 18 applicants. The city staff studied their applications and eliminated five who didn't meet the requirements.

The council selected the commission from that group.