© 2024 WXPR
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Rhinelander Council Moving Toward Ethics Panel

Wikimedia Commons Royal Broil

Following some high-profile incidents in the last year that nearly ended up in legal charges against members of the city government, the city is moving closer to forming an ethics board that will monitor actions of officials.

Monday, City Administrator Daniel Guild said after being asked by the council earlier this month to look at how other communities structure such a board, he said he found several examples.

Guild says new Rhinelander attorney Steve Sorenson is nationally known on the topic of ethics. Sorenson says he helped write Green Bay's ethics codes which is seen as a model for other communities.

A motion was put forward to advertise for people to join the ethics board, but Sorenson said he felt it might be the cart before the horse...

"...You really should know what you're doing before you ask people to volunteer. You don't want to play on the football team until you know where you're playing....."

But a long ago discussion reemerged as who would be eligible to be on such a panel? Alder Steve Sauer said people who live outside the city but have property in the city should be eligible.

Alder Dawn Rog said the city acted before to limit participation on such boards to city residents after citizen members of some committees moved out of the city but stayed on the panels...

"I do agree that maybe you're a property owner but you're not registered to vote in the city, I think that would be perfectly fine. If somebody thought they would want to step up and they had a concern, maybe a business concern, but they did not live in the city, but they were business owners, I wouldn't have a problem with that, so I'm hoping we could wait and continue this conversation..."

Sauer made a motion to direct city staff to draft an ethics code for the city to be first reviewed at upcoming meetings before advertising for people to be on a possible ethics panel.

Up North Updates
* indicates required
Related Content