The Edinburg city council adopted a code of ethics for elected officials as well as board and committee members on Tuesday, fulfilling a campaign promise made by Mayor Ramiro Garza Jr.
The city council approved an amendment to the city’s ordinances, making them subject to an ethics policy that already applies to city employees.
The ethics code states that elected officials and board and committee members must not use their positions to secure privileges, must avoid conduct that would lead to the perceptions of bias or partiality, and must commit to acting in the best interests of the community, according to the ordinance.
“It incorporates state law, federal law requirements of elected officials all in, kind of, one central location in the city ordinance,” Edinburg City Attorney Omar Ochoa told the council. “(It) gives a general purpose statement and a guidance statement as well.”
It also requires elected officials to receive training on the laws they are required to follow which must be completed within the time period required by law or within six months of taking office, whichever is sooner.
The ordinance also designates the mayor and the city council members as responsible for enforcing compliance with the ethical standards.
“Anyone in violation of the Code of Ethics is subject to discipline and/or further action as allowed under the City Charter and laws of the United States and State of Texas,” the ordinance states.
The adoption of an ethics policy for the council was one of the top priorities for Mayor Ramiro Garza Jr. during his mayoral campaign last year, vowing to enact one when he was in office.
“I think it’s about building trust with our residents, our community,” Garza said during the meeting.
He added that since the city is in the midst of seeking feedback from residents, it seemed appropriate to be transparent with them.
“We’re asking them to participate and provide feedback as part of the Edinburg 2040 program,” Garza said. “I think this will only make sense to do that.”
He emphasized that the policy also applied to all members of boards and committees, of which there are approximately 18.
“I think it’s important to note, employees have an ethics policy as part of the personnel manual,” Garza said. “This actually takes it a step further, it’ll have us as elected officials follow this code of ethics which is really, as our counsel pointed out, an incorporation of all laws — state, federal — that we should follow.”
A few of the council members suggested possible additions to the ethics policy in the future.
Councilman David White brought up the possibility of requiring elected officials to submit to drug testing.
“You always hear people questioning government and officials and stuff like that, I wouldn’t mind seeing drug testing in here,” White said. “I know it’s probably not something that’s going to happen right away but eventually that’s something that’s got to start to transpire.”
He noted that drug testing was already required of their employees.
“You hear a lot of communities chiming for it because they want to make sure that their elected officials are the same as their communities,” White said. “That’s the only thing I’d like to see go a step farther, but maybe something in the future here will happen; I don’t even know if it’s legal for that to happen.”
What Garza hopes to see in the future are ordinances related to campaign finance and electioneering.
“Campaign finance is a big one for me,” Garza said. “We’ve talked about doing the right thing and I think, for me, I think campaign finance, it’s just another level.”
He said he’d already spoken to their legal counsel about looking into those issues which might lead to, maybe not additions to their ethics code, but perhaps a different ordinance altogether.
“I think what’s on here is a very good start, but I think some of these could veer off into, perhaps, an electioneering ordinance or something,” Garza said.
Edinburg City Councilman Dan Diaz praised the new policy and hopes it remains in place.
“I think it means a lot that the board wants this as part of Edinburg and forever — hopefully nobody changes this,” he said.
The ethics policy is already in effect.
