LETTER TO THE EDITOR | Ethics board should be priority

Editor, This letter is regarding the story “Ethics board members hard to find in Langley” that ran in March 11 edition of The Record. As the council member who sponsored Langley’s ordinance creating an ethics board which was unanimously approved by the council on Dec. 16, 2013, I am concerned by the ongoing lack of any appointments to its membership.

March 17, 2015 5:51 pm

Editor,

This letter is regarding the story “Ethics board members hard to find in Langley” that ran in March 11 edition of The Record.

As the council member who sponsored Langley’s ordinance creating an ethics board which was unanimously approved by the council on Dec. 16, 2013, I am concerned by the ongoing lack of any appointments to its membership.

That law (LMC 1.24.040.1) calls for, “An ethics board of not less than three or more than five members, plus an alternate appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the city council.”

While Langley is certainly not a pit of governmental malfeasance, we are no more immune to occasional ethical lapses than any other jurisdiction. Consider Langley’s own fairly recent experience as The Record recalls. Consider more recent events in the Governor’s office of Oregon; of Virginia; the New York State Assembly…

Therefore, our community would benefit from having a functioning ethics advisory board at-the-ready to address issues and train members of our government as our law requires.

Certainly, appointees to any ethics advisory board should be of high ethical caliber. However, should potential advisors to the council be required to submit more documentation of being “beyond reproach” than would appointees to the council itself? Or to the office of mayor? I don’t remember being asked to submit five letters attesting to my ethical standing in our community when I applied for such appointments to actually create and enforce our laws.

We are now approaching 15 months since the council mandated the creation of this board.

Considering, “The ethics training and advisory board shall come under review for effectiveness and usefulness in no more than 24 months from the adoption of this code,” it is long past time for the City of Langley to fulfill the intent of its own law. It should engage in a pro-active campaign to seek, invite, vet and appoint qualified members to serve to the best of their ability.

I trust that your newspaper would make space available in its Viewpoint or Mayor’s Beat columns for this laudable purpose.

HAL SELIGSON

Langley