The City of Berkeley Lake, Georgia
Minutes for the Ethics Workshop
March 17, 2006

Those in attendance for the Ethics Workshop were as follows:
Mayor: Lois Salter
Council Members:
Walter Anderson, Bernie Cohen, Debbie Guthrie, Tom Kitchens and George Sipe
City Clerk- Jackie Wall
Citizens Present- 0

 The Ethics Workshop was led by Scot Wrighton of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.  It began at 9 AM and concluded at 4:30 PM, lunch having been provided on site.  The City Council’s objectives for this workshop were:

1. Improve the level of professionalism exercised/exhibited at council meetings
2. Reach agreement on ways to achieve better council communication between fellow members of the city council
3. Enhance the council’s internal cohesiveness
4. Begin the process of drafting and eventually adopting a city code of ethics and/or a council code of conduct

A considerable quantity of written documents related to municipal ethics, codes of procedure and ways to improve the management of public meetings was distributed to the participants in the form of a resource notebook. A copy of this is available for citizen review at City Hall.

To best apply and utilize these documents, workshop participants were asked to discuss what core values they want to incorporate into the City of Berkeley Lake’s ethics ordinances and codes of conduct. Various council members’ answers were:

1. Communicate truthfully with citizens and do so in a completely consistent manner.
2. Make sure there are adequate channels for citizens to talk to governing body members so that the council does not get isolated, that they don’t ever think they know more than citizens (i.e., become arrogant or elitist).
3. Maximize the transparency of city government.
4. Treat others with respect; as we would want to be treated.
5. Be open and honest with council members and citizens in the development of objective and measurable performance and service outcomes; use objective facts in city decision-making.
6. Be good stewards of the city’s resources.
7. Be a representative of all citizens as much as possible.
8. Follow the law, common sense, and understand that all the actions the council takes have consequences.

To make the city’s governing body meetings flow more smoothly and assure that they are conducted with professionalism, the workshop  participants agreed on the following steps:

1. Non-emergency council agenda items will be sent out a minimum of 4 calendar days before the scheduled meeting (preferably 7 days) to the mayor, so that she can get a written agenda produced 3 days before the scheduled meeting. Any changes made to the agenda will be presented at the beginning of the council meeting and will be approved by a majority vote of the council (or by consensus).
 
2. Generally, if an action item is on the agenda, the background and descriptive material distributed to the council in advance will make the exact action proposed clear (i.e., so that council members know in advance what consideration by the council is expected or is proposed).

3. Discussion of non-action items will be separated under a comment section of the agenda. If the person proposing the item is unsuccessful in getting and keeping an item they want on the agenda using the procedure outlined above, their discussion/comment time will be limited to five(5) minutes and shall not, at any time, include personal comments or comments that reflect negatively on someone’s character; i.e., they will focus on policy.

4. When possible, Council members will submit questions in advance to the Mayor so that  research and answers can be provided in a manner that makes for efficient and effective council meetings.  

5. Committees making reports to the City Council will be encouraged to do so in advance and in writing, but in any case should limit their report time to no more than 10 minutes. Where possible, the mayor will also make her reports to the council in writing, but will be at liberty to comment and expand on items in her written report as she determines that it is appropriate to do so.

6. Preparation of the council’s official minutes will move more toward summary form and away from verbatim form.

7. The citizen comment section of the council meeting will be amended to stipulate that comments will be limited to 2-minutes, unless their individual time is extended by majority vote of the council (or by consensus).

8. The formal agenda will provide that the citizen comments section (to receive comments about subjects NOT on the prepared agenda) will be at the end of the agenda.