City of Aurora - File #: 19-0015

• File #: 19-0015
• Version: 6
• Type: Ordinance
• Status: Passed
• File created: 1/5/2019
• In control: City Council
• On agenda: 7/23/2019
• Final action: 7/23/2019
• Title: An Ordinance amending Chapter 2, Article III, Division 2 of the Code of the City of Aurora pertaining to the ethical standards of the City's officers and employees and creating Chapter 15 of the Code of the City of Aurora restating and amplifying those standards.

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result
7/23/2019	6	City Council	adopted	Pass
7/16/2019	6	Committee of the Whole	(PLACED ON CONSENT AGENDA)
7/2/2019	6	Rules, Administration, and Procedure	recommended for approval	Pass
6/18/2019	5	Committee of the Whole	referred
4/16/2019	5	Committee of the Whole	(HELD)
4/10/2019	4	Special Ordinance Committee	recommended for approval	Fail
3/27/2019	4	Special Ordinance Committee
3/13/2019	4	Special Ordinance Committee	held	Pass
2/27/2019	3	Special Ordinance Committee	forwarded with no recommendation
2/13/2019	2	Special Ordinance Committee
1/23/2019	2	Special Ordinance Committee
1/9/2019	2	Special Ordinance Committee

cover
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council

FROM: The Law Department

DATE: June 24, 2019

SUBJECT:
Ethical Standards for the City's Officers and Employees.

PURPOSE:
To restate, modernize, and reorganize provisions of the City Code pertaining to the ethical standards of the City's officers and employees.

BACKGROUND:
Chapter 2, Article III, Division 2 of the City Code is comprised of several ordinances that collectively establish a variety of ethical standards for the City's officers and employees. Many of these standards derive from Illinois statutes, including the Illinois Municipal Code, the Public Officer Prohibited Activities Act, and the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, while others derive from common law principles. Over time, as previous City Council made changes to this Division to conform to changes in State law or to meet heightened public standards, some of the Division's provisions began to conflict with others. Additionally, the mechanism for adjudicating alleged ethics violations involving elected officials -- an ethics commission -- has not been constituted for nearly 20 years.

In order to address these shortcomings, the Law Department reviewed ethics ordinances from neighboring political subdivisions as well as recent changes in Illinois law and developed a new ethics ordinance for the City that it proposes that the Council codify as a new Chapter 15 of the City Code. The proposed ordinance is based heavily on an ethics ordinance adopted by DuPage County in 2012, but is adapted to conform to a municipal form of government.

DISCUSSION:
The proposed revisions do not significantly impact the substance of the City's ethical standards: conduct currently prohibited will remain prohibited, while rules regarding conflicts of interest have been amplified and clarified.

The most significant changes involve the structural and procedural mechanisms involved in administering and enforcing the rules. These changes are summarized as follows:...