Board of Ethics to revisit conflict-of-interest language after council discussion

Members of the Denton City Board of Ethics said they want the board's ordinance to be broader and more aspirational, and they plan to review council recommendations following a scheduled Oct. 27 council discussion on restructuring the ethics ordinance.

"My big issue with our ordinance is that it reads like a code...we got into just trying to parse through definitions that are confusing to me," the Chair said, urging a shorter, more general ordinance. Committee member (Speaker 3) raised a procedural concern about conflict-of-interest timing: when a previously existing conflict is no longer "current" — whether that cessation is immediate or should be treated as continuing for a defined post-event period. Staff (Speaker 2) agreed the existing code includes no explicit timing definition for that question.

Staff told the board Council member Ferry recently proposed restructuring the ethics ordinance to the council and that the council will discuss it Oct. 27; the Board of Ethics expects to consider any council direction or recommendations at its Nov. 12 meeting. The board did not adopt language at the Sept. 14 meeting and did not set a formal definition for conflict timing; the item was placed on the agenda for further consideration.