ETHICS PANEL TO BE FILLED

The city of Cape Girardeau is looking for a few good citizens to serve as watchdogs over the ethical conduct of city officials.

Under an amendment to the City Charter approved by voters in April, the city is accepting applications from people to serve on a new Ethics Commission.

The commission, which will be appointed by the City Council in April, will be charged with investigating any alleged ethical violations and conflicts of interest involving elected and appointed city officials.

Applications may be picked up at the city manager's office in City Hall. All applications must be notarized and postmarked by March 1.

"I'm really happy to have the City Council take the lead in getting the Ethics Commission appointed," said Dr. Keith Russell, who served on the Charter Revision Committee, which conceived the idea for an ethics commission.

In light of the commission's duties, the commission members themselves will be held to a high standard.

To avoid conflicts of interest, commission members are prohibited from holding or being a candidate for any other public office.

Also, within 30 days of appointment, members must file a financial interest statement. Such statements must filed on an annual basis.

City Attorney Eric Cunningham said that is necessary to ensure that members do not have financial interests in any of the matters they may be investigating.

Among other provisions intended to prevent conflicts, members may not:

-- Be employees of the city, the state or any political subdivision of the state.

-- Be a registered lobbyist.

-- Serve on any other governmental board, committee or commission.

-- Be an officer of any political party or political organization.

-- Make contributions in support of or in opposition to any candidate or proposition.

-- Participate in any election campaign, except as a registered voter.

Although the standards are much higher than required of members of other city advisory boards, Russell doesn't believe they go too far.

"It will be an ethical guidepost for the city of Cape Girardeau, so standards should be high," Russell said.

Members are allowed to be members of civic, community, social, labor or professional organizations and political parties.

Ethics Commission members must be at years 21 years of age, have lived in the city for a minimum of two consecutive years and must not have been convicted of a felony or any crime involving moral turpitude.

The amendment for the Ethics Commission was the most controversial of the 12 proposed amendments sent to voters in April.

Some opponents felt it was unneeded since the Missouri Ethics Commission could investigate any complaints against city officials.

However, Russell said some members of the Charter Review Committee remembered isolated incidents in the past where City Council members were not effective in policing their own behavior.

"I hope it will move forward and get some quality people to serve," said Russell. "The voters spoke. The Charter Review Committee did its work. Let's put it in place and see what happens."

Russell believes the existence of the commission will raise the ethical standards of all city officials.

Members of the initial commission will receive staggered terms. Two members will receive five-year terms and two will received four-year terms. The remaining three members will respectively receive one- , two- and three-year terms. The City Council will decide the term length given to each appointee.

Future commission members will be appointed to full five-year terms.

Before it can begin hearing any cases, the commission must first draft a set of bylaws which will be subject to City Council approval.

Cunningham said those bylaws will outline operating procedure and rules of evidence. Most of the other provisions concerning the commission are listed in the city ordinance establishing the commission.

The City Council passed the ordinance, as allowed by the charter amendment, in October. The ordinance is patterned after the state law creating the Missouri Ethics Commission.

No time limit will be set for the commission to begin looking into cases.

The commission will be authorized to review or investigate the official conduct of the mayor, council members, the city manager, chief purchasing officer, city judge and members of the various city advisory boards.