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Mayor Piercy said the council also oversaw the City Manager and Municipal Court Judge but it was her <br />understanding that there were no guidelines in place for processing complaints against those individuals. <br /> <br />Speaking to the question of whether there was an existing complaint process for the positions mentioned by <br />Mayor Piercy, Ms. Bettman reviewed City Code Section 2.4860, related to the public official code of ethics <br />complaint process for elected and appointed officials, the City Manager, and the Municipal Court Judge. <br />Those sections stipulated that the City Attorney was to determine if such complaints had merit, and she <br />believed that in this instance, the City Attorney should have determined if the complaint had merit. She said <br />the process was laid out to the point of investigation of the complaint. She thought the section should <br />include specific mention of council-hired employees and of directing those complaints to both the City <br />Attorney and the council. <br /> <br />City Attorney Glenn Klein said the council could choose to amend that section of the code to include the <br />Police Auditor. He clarified that code provisions in question were for complaints related to the part of the <br />code cited by Ms. Bettman. The council could adopt that process for whatever complaints it received <br />against its employees. He suggested the council should think about how quickly it wanted to be notified of <br />such complaints. <br /> <br />Responding to a question from Mayor Piercy, City Attorney Klein said that misuse of office could <br />encompass more than a violation of the ethics code. The council could determine that something was a <br />violation of policy that would not be a violation of the ethics code. Mayor Piercy suggested that the cited <br />section was a good starting place, although it might not cover everything the council wanted to cover. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark asked City Attorney Klein if there were other ways to proceed on such complaints or a different <br />type of complaint so the council could choose from the best of all available options. City Attorney Klein <br />suggested the council could design whatever system met the majority of its objections. He suggested that <br />complaints were directed by the code to his office in order to provide some distance between the organization <br />and the complainant. He emphasized his client was the City, not a judge, manager, or auditor, so a rationale <br />for such an approach was that his duty was to the City as a whole and he was legally obligated to bring any <br />complaint to the council’s attention. He recommended the council consider whether he should take <br />complaints to the entire body, the Mayor, or the officers. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark recalled that the council had some issues related to the performance of the previous manager in <br />regard to the dissemination of information and the council had agreed that the manager would contact all <br />councilors about emerging situations that might appear in the media. He said that in this case, he was still <br />“smarting” that it took several days for word to reach him that a complaint existed. That information should <br />have been provided to all councilors and the Mayor the instance it was recognized as an emerging situation. <br />He wanted to ensure that in the future, that occurred. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka agreed with the remarks of Mr. Clark. He said that notice should have been given to all <br />councilors, and in cases of this magnitude, it was critical. He recommended that staff be directed to outline <br />several options for the council to consider. He also wanted a process to deal with someone who abused the <br />system or engaged in criminal conduct by making frivolous accusations. <br /> <br />Ms. Ortiz agreed with Mr. Clark and noted a past instance where she had requested notice and it had not <br />seemed a like a big request but it seemed to staff like another step to take. She suggested the council discuss <br />the issue with the new manager, and suggested the possibility of a council telephone tree to make each <br />councilor aware of the information when it became available. <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 19, 2008 Page 2 <br /> Special Session <br /> <br />