HomeMy WebLinkAboutSUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS - 7/12/2016- BOARD,COMMISSION,PERSONAL INTEREST,REPRESENT CLIENT INTERESTFrom: David Lingle [mailto:dlingle@alm2s.com]
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2016 7:37 AM
To: Christine Macrina
Cc: Ron Sladek
Subject: Re: Ethic's Review Board Meeting on Conflict of Interest
Hi Christine:
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the subject of the Ethics Review Board meeting. I
will not be available to attend in person.
I am a current member of the Landmark Preservation Commission and a past member and chair
of the Planning & Zoning Board. I think it is important that the City continue to foster an
atmosphere where the most qualified citizens can volunteer and participate on boards and
commissions.
In regards to the first agenda issue, I believe that every applicant that appears before a board or
commission should have the right to be represented by their professional consultants at that
meeting. An applicant should not be required or expected to present professional materials on
their own behalf, or answer what can be very technical questions themselves. For a firm with
multiple partners/professionals such as mine, that is not a problem. If I have a conflict of
interest, I recuse myself and another professional in the firm handles the presentation. (Only one
time in the last 20 years did this present a problem, where I was serving on a commission in
another city and my designated replacement was ill the day of the meeting. I received special
permission from the board to make the presentation on behalf of our client.) However, I do
believe a special circumstance exists for a consultant who is a sole proprietor and has no one
available to present their professional materials to the board or commission. In this case, I
believe they should be allowed to make the presentation and not force an applicant to represent
themselves.
This leads to the larger issue discussed by the City Attorney's office but not listed as an agenda
item for the Ethics Review Board meeting.......whether members of the City's boards and
commissions should be able to provide professional services to the City. I firmly believe that
this does not present a conflict as long as the board or commission member recuses himself from
discussion and voting on any agenda item that might be related to such work. The reason many
of these members were selected in the first place was because they had expertise in the areas
handled by their board or commission, and in the case of the LPC, the commission membership
is required to be made up primarily of qualified professionals. If this was not allowed, the City
would lose many highly qualified, knowledgeable, experienced and dedicated citizen members,
which would obviously not be in the City's best interests.
Thanks again for soliciting our input,
Dave
David Lingle, AIA, LEED AP
Principal
dlingle@alm2s.com
alm2s
712 Whalers Way
Building B, Suite 100
From: Ron Sladek [mailto:tatanka@frii.com]
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2016 11:22 AM
To: Christine Macrina
Subject: Re: Ethic's Review Board Meeting on Conflict of Interest
Hi Christine,
First of all, I really appreciate the opportunity to provide comments on the conflict of interest
issue that is coming before the Ethics Review Board next week. I will be out of state at the time
of the meeting, so will not be able to attend.
This issue concerns me from two different perspectives: one as chair of the Landmark
Preservation Commission and the other as a professional who has provided consulting services to
the city for many years.
As a professional historic preservation consultant, I have provided services to various
departments throughout the city over the past few decades and hope to continue to do so into the
future. While my consulting practice involves projects throughout the Rocky Mountain states, I
have been based here in Fort Collins since the early 1990s and consider the city to be one of my
most important clients. Over the past 6-1/2 years since I joined the LPC, I have been very clear
about the line between my professional work and volunteer service. Because of that awareness
and in compliance with city code, I have always been careful to recuse myself from hearings and
discussions where there might be an actual or perceived conflict of interest related to my
professional work.
However, this has also presented occasional problems in situations where I have not been able to
present the results of my work before the LPC for private clients or city departments. At the
beginning of each project, I inform my clients that I will not be able to appear before the LPC on
their behalf or even to present the results of my work. This often leaves them in a difficult
situation where they will have to explain the technical results of my work without the benefit of
experience and understanding. As a sole consultant I have had no one else to turn to for
help. This has placed me in a different and more challenging situation than firms with partners
or junior associates (such as at architecture firms) who can still appear before the LPC.
The other issue that has recently been raised by the city attorney's office is whether anyone
serving on a board or commission is allowed to engage in business of any kind with the
city. This question, and the code related to it, should also be taken into consideration during the
Ethics Board's discussion. We need clarity on this question and the code language needs to be
more clearly defined or perhaps even changed. I want to encourage discussion of this question
with the city attorney during the meeting so we get some resolution to this additional issue.
The other concern I have with this is as chair of the LPC. I have served as chair for 4-1/2 years
and hope to continue in that position until I am term limited out in another year and a half. As
you may know, as a Certified Local Government the City of Fort Collins is mandated to ensure
that the LPC has a minimum number of preservation professionals involved. Right now we have
myself, four architects, an archaeologist, a public historian, a retired history librarian, and a
preservation advocate. This is a remarkable group of people who bring education, experience
and commitment to the task. A number of us take on projects for the city from time to time, and
we have been careful to recuse ourselves from hearings when the projects appear on our
agendas. I am concerned that a number will resign from the LPC if greater restrictions are
placed upon us. In addition, it will become very difficult to find other working professionals to
take their place. Obviously, this will severely limit the ability of the LPC to function as it
should.
Thank you for taking these concerns into consideration. I look forward to hearing the results of
the discussion.
Regards,
Ron
_________
Ron Sladek, Chair
Landmark Preservation Commission
____________
Ron Sladek, President
Tatanka Historical Associates Inc.
P.O. Box 1909
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.221.1095 (ofc)
970.689.4855 (cell)
www.facebook.com/tatankahistoricalassociates
From: doug ernest [mailto:ernest.doug@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2016 6:21 PM
To: Christine Macrina; tatanka@frii.com
Subject: Re: Ethic's Review Board Meeting on Conflict of Interest
Hi Christine,
I will be out of town most of next week and therefore can't attend the meeting. In regard to written input, my opinion is
that the topic under discussion is somewhat of a gray area. If, however, a board or commission member who has
recused himself or herself due to a conflict of interest with a client who is appearing before that same board or
commission, I do think that the client/applicant should have an opportunity to allow the board or commission to at
least query in person the recused member if said member has technical expertise or knowledge that the applicant
cannot otherwise present to the board/commission for its full consideration.
I do agree that the recused member ought not to appear before the/commission on behalf of another person
(assuming that I am understanding that eventuality correctly).
I have copied LPC chair Ron Sladek as an FYI.
Doug Ernest
From: Vicky McLane [mailto:vmhmclane@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2016 5:26 PM
To: Christine Macrina
Subject: Re: Ethic's Review Board Meeting on Conflict of Interest
Christine - I may be old fashioned, BUT, it seems obvious to me that if you
declare a conflict of interest in your role as a Board/Commission member,
then you must recuse yourself from any further contact with the
Board/Commission on that subject, whether in your official
Board/Commission capacity or on behalf of a client or a project.
I have served on several State Boards, as well as local Boards, and the
ethics are clear. Once you have declared a conflict of interest on any topic,
you do not participate in ANY capacity on further discussion of that topic.
I appreciate the opportunity to comment.
Vicky McLane
Land Conservation and Stewardship Board
On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 23:04:54 +0000, Christine Macrina <cmacrina@fcgov.com> wrote:
Board and Commission Members:
You may recall that there have been recent discussions regarding whether an individual board or
commission member who has declared a conflict of interest may present materials to his or her
own board on behalf of a client or project. In order to obtain more clear guidance on this issue,
Councilmember Gino Campana has requested that the Council’s Ethics Review Board consider
this question and issue an ethics opinion. (The Ethics Review Board opinion is then presented to
the City Council for review and adoption by resolution.)
The Ethics Review Board is scheduled to meet at 4:00 p.m. for one hour on Tuesday, July 12
th
,
in the City Attorney’s Office conference room at 300 LaPorte Avenue. The meeting is a public
meeting and is open for all interested persons to attend. A copy of the formal notice of this
meeting is attached.
You may want to provide input regarding this issue to the Ethics Review Board (either as a
board/commission if you have time to meet prior to July 12, or as an individual). If so, it will
facilitate with coordination and allow the Ethics Review Board to make efficient use of its
meeting time for you to provide your comments in writing in advance through me by noon on
July 12, so that I can be sure to forward that input to the Board as it is received, in addition to
including the information in the Board’s meeting packet.
Please feel free to call if you have any questions or concerns regarding this process or how you
may comment on it.
Thank you.
CHRISTINE MACRINA
Boards and Commissions Coordinator
City of Fort Collins
300 LaPorte Avenue
970-416-2525 office
cmacrina@fcgov.com