Providence has become one of the few cities in the country with a municipal ethics code, after the City Council and Mayor David Cicilline '83 passed legislation in August creating the code and a complementary ethics commission.
Karen Southern, Cicilline's press secretary, told The Herald that "the Mayor considers this measure one of the most important pieces of legislation of his administration."
Cicilline first proposed an ethics code during his 2002 mayoral campaign against Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr., who was convicted of and removed from office for racketeering conspiracy. Cicilline appointed a task force in 2003 to draft an ethics code, which was delivered to the City Council in January 2005.
The council considered and began to edit the task force's draft before deciding to create its own code.
Cicilline's task force derived its code from the existing state ethics code, and overlap between the state and municipal ethics codes "was one of the disputes that the council had with the commission," according to Ward 2 Councilwoman and Ordinance Committee Chair Rita Williams. A City Council press release issued in July noted that penalizing conduct already punishable under state law is illegal.
"To repeat (content of the state ethics code) doesn't make a lot of sense," Williams said.
"There was a lot of time spent with regard to this," said City Council President John Lombardi, D-Ward 13. "We had experts come in from all over the country to advise us. (We) heard from people from Common Cause, the business community (and) people from the collective bargaining unions." Common Cause is a nonpartisan government watchdog.
"We thought that we drafted one of the best possible ordinances," Lombardi added.
Lombardi will be unseated from the council presidency in January, when the council next convenes. He will be succeeded by Ward 14 Councilman Peter Mancini, eight members of the 15-member council agreed in an internal caucus last week, according to a Nov. 29 Providence Journal article.
The Council's timeline for creating a new code "became very political in terms of the mayor using that to make the council look bad," Williams said. "I think we came up with a much better ordinance because we got some national advice."
Williams said the council's code came out more readable than both the task force's draft and the state ethics code.
The final ethics code passed by the council and approved by the mayor was created by lawyers for both sides who reconciled differences in the two versions. The code was passed unanimously by the 12 members of the council present at a special meeting Aug. 3.
The ethics code itself is "very specific," Williams said. "So there's no guessing, 'Is this a conflict of interest or not?' "
Lombardi said the Providence ethics code "addresses issues in conduct not covered by the Rhode Island ethics code."
"Not only do we expect a standard of excellence, but we expect higher ones than the state," Lombardi said.
Southern said the code seeks to "establish a high moral tone." This is accomplished through a "value-based" approach that puts the "public interest" first, she said.
The ethics code begins by stating, "All officers and employees of the City are public servants of the people and hold their positions for the benefit of the public."
The ordinance also establishes a six-member ethics commission and provides for a municipal integrity officer who will be "appointed by the mayor with the advice and consent of the council," Lombardi said.
"The mission of this integrity officer is to encourage each of the employees of the city to act in an appropriate and ethical manner," Lombardi said. The officer's functions will include education and training of city employees, creation of written materials, maintenance of a Web site and ethics hotline and communication between municipal agencies and the state ethics commission.
Southern said the purpose of the integrity officer is to "promote voluntary compliance through education."
In addition, "they will be empowered basically to put their findings together and present it to the (commission)," Lombardi said.
However, the integrity officer will not have punitive powers. In the case that an individual is found in violation of the municipal ethics code, additional action will be presented to the city solicitor, who will refer it to municipal court or the attorney general's office as necessary, Lombardi said.
The commission will most likely be created and an integrity officer selected at the beginning of next year, when the newly elected council members will take their seats, Lombardi said. Southern said the administration has already begun ethics training.
