COLUMBUS – If he’s elected mayor, Sheriff Zach Scott wants to bar Columbus employees from accepting gifts from those doing business with the city and ban city council members from working for nonprofit groups that receive city money.
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Scott said on Tuesday that he would sign an executive order implementing tougher ethics rules for city employees and elected officials.
“We’ve got to start instilling trust back in our community. We’ve got to,” he told reporters at his East Side campaign headquarters.
City Hall has been plagued in recent months with scandals surrounding the awarding of a contract to the company that installed red light cameras and the sale of outgoing Mayor Michael Coleman’s home.
Perhaps trying to steal a march on Scott, his opponent in the Nov. 3 election called for a review of city laws governing campaign-finance disclosure, lobbyist registration and access to city records
“Working together, we’ve developed a strong record of results at the city of Columbus. Today is the next step in that process,” city council president Andrew Ginther said in a release issued about 30 minutes before Scott’s news conference.
State ethics laws regulate what city employees can and cannot accept from those who do business with the city, said Joshua Cox, chief legal counsel in the city attorney’s office.
Scott is calling for an outright ban. “City employees may not accept anything of value, even a cup of coffee, from lobbyists, city contractors, people or organizations who have or may have regulatory issues before city government,” he said.
Those same lobbyists, contractors and others who may have business at City Hall are also banned from “paying or offering to pay costs of City employees,” Scott said.
He is also vowing to require ethics training for city employees and vendors and to appoint a city “ethics officer.”
In what sounds like a direct jab at his opponent, Scott says his executive order would prohibit city council members from working for non-profit organizations that receive funds from the city. Ginther works for the nonprofit Children’s Hunger Alliance.
“Mere recusal of the individual on issues affecting his or her agency isn’t enough, Scott said.
“It is clear the current ethics policies or rules are not working,” Scott said. “We must now take more-stringent steps to correct a culture in which it’s OK for city employees and leaders to play cozy with lobbyists, city contractors and people they regulate.”
Ginther said he would have to look at the specifics of Scott’s proposals more closely. But he said that Scott has accepted thousands of dollars of gifts that he has reported, and “we’ve reported gifts as well” to follow state laws.
New ethics laws were put in the city charter last year that are tougher than state ethics laws, Ginther said. The charter changes that voters approved restrict how city employees may spend city money but do not ban them from taking gifts.