Who Would Have Thunk It, Greensboro Votes 7-1 for Ethics on Local Level

At the Greensboro City Council Meeting on March 17, 2009 during the end of the meeting item #31 is called Addendum.There was a resolution brought to the attention of the council that has to deal with having state ethics laws brought to the local and county level.(HAT TIP YES WEEKLY) on their blog CLICKHERE

Here is the link to the video at around the 1:55 mark on CLICKHERE then proceed to March 17, 2009 video.

Greensboro City Attorney Terry Wood had this to say" This is put on as a request from a council member. This is a state ethics act that covers state commissions and boards it is very extensive and includes filling out forms acknowledging the different various types of ownership, and any interest you have in the property you own. In other words a full disclosure and the purpose of it is to keep, to prevent conflicts of interest. At least what our legislature perceives as conflicts of interest.And this is an act that is pending in the legislature now. House Bill #287 CLICKHERE or click on the title above and if you adopt a resolution it would be to acknowledge support for that resolution. You of course can't enact it , that's a state wide law.That's the purpose of it. "

Then the Mayor Johnson's talks about going to speak to a group of people and accepting a potted plant or some flowers and how the mayor does accept these gifts.She then asked the City Attorney is that proper or improper and He said under this bill it would be improper. There are over five pages of what you can and cannot do and the city attorney then said the best thing to do is not accept gifts at all.

Then the ethically challenged Greensboro City Council member Robbie " Pave It " Perkins had this to say,"These days it is hard to vote against a ethics law. I think that being said the debate at the legislature is going to be very interesting to watch. Because the legislature has imposed these ethics rules on themselves.Largely as a result of the problems that they had with ex-DEMOCRAT speaker Jim Black. They have imposed these laws and found them unwieldly and have been modify it ever since.So the debate as I understand it from talking today to some of the house members is do they want to take a step further and impose it on all of the municipal officials in the state.Because they are already under it.Good arguments on both sides. We should support it and move on."

Who would have thunk that Robbie 'Pave It " Perkins would be all over passing a resolution in support of this ethics bill but as you heard above they have found the ethics laws unwielding and are modifying the law to this day. So if you can read into that statement then the League of Municipalities are going to water down this ethics law to practically nothing. If you want to see what a ethically challenged city council member is then CLICKHERE or CLICKHERE

It would be nice to know which Greensboro City Council member actually brought this up as an addendum because the city attorney only said a city council member brought this up without naming a name. Who wants to guess who it was? We can take one very ethically challenged Greensboro City Council member out of the guessing game because when it was time to vote on this resolution in support of bringing ethics to the local and county level the vote was 7-1 with T Dianne Bellamy Small"TDBS" voting NO. How could you not be for ethics on the local level of city and county politics as the mayor had said but TDBS sure doesn't want any part of ethics and her past history has shown that. Can anyone say polygraph test.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE , Tony Wilkins has answered my question above here is the link CLICKHERE. Thanks Tony

Even before this was brought up in front of Greensboro City Council,

Joe Guarino had posted this on his blog CLICKHERE with a title "Ethics Laws and Local Elected Officials" .

This law is much needed on the local level and it is time to let your state legislators know that you are in support of this bill. All you would need to do is say to your state representatives " Bring Ethics to the Local Level Support House Bill #287". If you want to e-mail your state representative here is the link

CLICKHERE for House

CLICKHERE for Senate