The St. Louis County Board on Tuesday approved a revised code of conduct for elected officials in county government -- namely themselves -- but it's still not clear whether the code has any teeth.
"This is an effort in futility to go through all this" without any option to punish violations, Commissioner Peg Sweeney of Proctor said at a recent board workshop on the issue.
Commissioners unanimously adopted the revised code during a committee of the whole meeting at the Clinton Town Hall. They will give it final approval at their Feb. 3 regular meeting in Duluth.
The board made only minor changes to the original code, adopted in December 2007.
The changes were suggested by interim County Administrator Alan Mitchell, who said the revisions tighten language, make the code simpler and mesh better with official county regulations on employee behavior.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The purpose of all this is to be respectful," Mitchell said at the board workshop.
The original code was adopted after a series of incidents involving commissioners. In 2007, two commissioners were accused of harassing county employees while others were accused of making racist remarks and disrespecting their fellow board members.
The code of conduct is intended to be a blueprint of how elected officials should behave in office, its supporters say. Anyone who believes the code has been violated can make a report in writing to the County Board chairman and/or the county administrator. They will then convene an ethics committee composed of the chairman, administrator and county employee relations director.
If the ethics committee deems an investigation is warranted, the accused person is notified and an outside investigator hired. If there is any illegal activity suspected, the situation is handed over to appropriate legal authorities.
But short of an accusation about illegal activity, it's unclear what happens to the complaint if it's upheld.
Mitchell said the County Board can take little or no action against its elected officials, and absolutely cannot remove them from office or require the violator to take any action. The code ostensibly also applies to the county attorney, county auditor and sheriff, who are elected.
"You can't force elected officials to attend or do anything," Mitchell told the board.
Mitchell, however, said peer pressure from county commissioners probably would push the alleged violator into compliance.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mitchell said he has been keeping a log of complaints received under the code of conduct. Several have been considered and dropped, including a complaint against Sweeney for having campaign signs at the St. Louis County Fairgrounds during last fall's election. Sweeney was exonerated, noting she had paid the Proctor racetrack to advertise there.
Late last year, Commissioner Keith Nelson of Eveleth raised a question of whether Commissioner Steve O'Neil of Duluth could accept a $10,000 award from the McKnight Foundation. O'Neil received the award based on his work outside the county government in housing and other services for low-income residents.
Nelson questioned whether O'Neil could legally accept the money without redonating it to charity, but the county committee ruled -- after O'Neil brought the issue forward -- that O'Neil was free to accept the money.
