Ethical issues including “conflict of interest” may soon be addressed in an ethics policy for the city of Branson. In talking about the development of an ethics policy at the board of alderman’s April 22 work session Branson Mayor Raeanne Presley said, “I think the public really wants to know” and suggested that it would be nice if the board could come up with an ethics and conflict of interest policy that they could all agree on.
City Attorney Paul D. Link said, “The general rule on ethics is that if you as an alderman stand to make a financial gain on something then you should abstain from voting.” He pointed out that the law in Missouri has changed. An alderman can just abstain without stating a reason and the vote doesn’t count as a “Yes” or “No,” just an abstention. He reiterated that if an alderman thought there would be a financial gain to them personally they should abstain.
Link continued, “A lot of this ethics is a gut feeling or a perception.” He used a hypothetical of an alderman who had a fishing buddy that he went fishing with every weekend saying that if something relating to the buddy comes before the board that the alderman should consider abstaining. Link said that, although it’s not a legal conflict that would cause the alderman to have to abstain, that it would be a good idea to abstain “just because of the perception that you are kind of in the bag on that particular vote.”
Alderman Bob McDowell asked Link if it was correct that if an alderman is going to abstain from voting that they should also abstain from any discussion on the matter. Link responded by saying that was a gray area. Branson Mayor Raeanne Presley said, “If you were going to abstain because of financial interests then I think you should.”On the other hand she said, “If you had decided to abstain just because of perception then you probably would be fine.”
Link concurred saying, “I think that if you are going to abstain from a vote because of a financial condition that you should abstain from the conversation.” His rationale was that if an alderman was going to argue a position to get the rest of the board to vote a certain way the conflict is there whether or not they actually vote on the issue. More than one alderman ascribed to the opinion, “That happens at the planning and zoning commission all the time.”
Alderman Stephen Marshall pointed out the fact that some people in the community are saying that when it comes to the convention center that he is in a conflict of interest position and asked, “What conflict of interest?” Link replied, “Stephen, I don’t know that there is a direct financial conflict. I think what they are arguing there is more of that secondary thing I talked about.”
Link continued, “Some people have a perceived conflict. I’m not saying that there is one or there isn’t one. I think that the argument that I’ve heard is that they view you as if you say anything negative about the convention center or the Hilton Hotel that you are basically trying to rundown your competition because they are the chief competition in this area for your hotel.” He again reiterated that he wasn’t saying it was a legal conflict of interest or not.
Mayor Pressley suggested that that as part of the process of developing a more complete set of ethic and conflict of interest guidelines that a public work session would be held.
Furnished Courtesy of the Branson Daily Independent.
