West Haven council votes to remove most ethics code text from charter, point to city ordinance

Chairman Christopher Vargo proposed and moved an amendment to Chapter 8 of the draft charter to relocate most of the citys ethics language from the charter into the citys ordinances.

"My proposal is that we actually eliminate in this chapter section two in its entirety," Vargo said, arguing that the detailed code of ethics belongs in ordinance so it can be updated more easily over time.

In discussion, council members clarified which subsections to keep (including a short provision establishing a code and a provision linking administration of the code to an ordinance). Vargo said the charter should "create a board, empower the board, but then say that the board's conduct ... and that the code itself should remain within the ordinance." He asked staff to add a line referencing chapter 10 of the West Haven Code of Ordinances.

After drafting details were confirmed on the record, Vargo made the motion. Councilman Shawn Ronin seconded. The motion passed; minutes record the vote as "motion carries." The council did not record a roll-call tally in the transcript beyond the passage announcement.

Why it matters: The change shifts detailed ethics rules from the harder-to-amend charter into the citys ordinances, allowing future updates to procedures and standards without repeating a charter amendment process. Council members said this preserves the charters structural provisions (a board and its powers) while leaving evolving standards to ordinance drafting and amendment.

Next steps: Staff will finalize the precise draft language to indicate chapter 8 will establish the board and reference chapter 10 of the Code of Ordinances as the repository for the full code of ethics. That revised language will be transmitted to the Charter Revision Commission as the councils recommendation and posted for the public hearing on Wednesday.