Published: December 05, 2007 05:45 pm         

Conflict of interest policy approved

Price, Barrett say policy is too broad

The Zionsville Town Council approved 5-0 Monday, Dec. 3, an expanded conflict of interest policy that includes a clause urging council members to recuse themselves from any vote involving a campaign contributor.

The Dec. 3 meeting was the last for three council members, Dick Crane, David Brown and Jim Ray, who either lost in the May Republican Primary or retired. Their replacements Tim Haak, Matt Price and Michelle Barrett will take over in January, and two of them, Price and Barrett, said the new ordinance is too broad.

Town Council Member David Carr said part of his motivation for writing the conflict of interest policy was the outside influences that he said tried to sway the last campaign. Developers and construction companies contributed almost $20,000 to a political action committee called Citizens for a Better Zionsville. After the election, the CBZ PAC contributed $5,000 to Haak’s campaign, and paid for $12,000 in legal fees for Mark Plassman’s campaign, who lost to David Carr in the primary.

Conflict of interest is governed by a state statute that requires town council members to recuse themselves from a vote that involves any financial benefit for the member, but the council decided to go one step further. The policy said town council members should also recuse themselves from votes involving the financial interests of campaign contributors.

“In this respect, we are setting the standard for the entire state,” member David Carr said.

Price said he agrees with the general concept of the conflict of interest policy, but thinks it went beyond the normal notion of conflict of interest by including campaign contributions.

The incumbents have repeatedly tried to tie the new council members to developers, Price said, even though it is untrue.

Through this drum beat by the incumbents and newspaper articles, the public perception has become that his campaign was financed by developers, Price said, but most of his contributions came from people in the 46077 zip code.

His only contribution from a developer was $550 from the Phoenix Group, a Political Action Committee connected to Estridge Homes. What stands out most about his campaign was not that it was funded by developers, but that it was self-funded, he said. Out of $34,000 in contributions, he contributed $16,000, and $2,150 came from contributions from non-Zionsville residents.

Price said when he takes office he will have an open mind about the policy to see how it works in practice before going back to make any changes, if necessary.

Barrett said she thought the ordinance was not workable. She had more than 500 contributors and she said it would be impractical to bring a list of contributors to every meeting to check if any of them might receive a financial benefit from her vote.

During the campaign, no one ever told her the town needed a conflict of interest policy, she said, and the town council should concentrate on more important issues like the tax crisis and controlling growth.

     

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