Ethics Review Commission Regular Meeting of the Ethics Review Commission

Agenda — original pdf

Regular Meeting of the Ethics Review Commission Wednesday, August 12, 2020, 6:00 PM Ethics Review Commission meeting to be held August 12, 2020 with Social Distancing Modifications Public comment will be allowed via telephone; no in-person input will be allowed. All speakers must register in advance no later than Tuesday, AUGUST 11, 2020 by Noon. All public comment will occur at the beginning of the meeting. To speak remotely at the August 12, 2020 ETHICS REVIEW COMMISSION Meeting, persons must: •Call or email the board liaison at 512.974.2915 and sue.palmer@austintexas.gov no later than noon, (the day before the meeting). The information required is the speaker name, item number(s) they wish to speak on, whether they are for/against/neutral, and a telephone number or email address. •Once a request to speak has been called in or emailed to the board liaison, residents will receive either an email or phone call providing the telephone number to call on the day of the scheduled meeting. •Speakers must call in at least 15 minutes prior to meeting start in order to speak, late callers will not be accepted and will not be able to speak. •Speakers will be placed in a queue until their time to speak. •Handouts or other information may be emailed to sue.palmer@austintexas.gov by Noon the day before the scheduled meeting. This information will be provided to Board and Commission members in advance of the meeting. •If this meeting is broadcast live, residents may watch the meeting here: http://www.austintexas.gov/page/watch-atxn-live 1 ETHICS REVIEW COMMISSION AUGUST 12, 2020 AT 6:00 P.M. VIA VIDEOCONFERENCING Vice-Chair J. Michael Ohueri Secretary Kenneth “Tray” Gober Betsy Greenberg Robin Lerner Mary Kahle Donna Beth McCormick CURRENT COMMISSION MEMBERS: Chair Luis Soberon Debra Danburg Raafia Lari Nathan Ryan Pedro A. Villalobos AGENDA CALL TO ORDER CITIZEN COMMUNICATION Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, all citizen communications will occur at the beginning of the meeting. Speakers are limited to a maximum time limit of three minutes per speaker only on items listed below. 1. OLD BUSINESS Discussion and possible action regarding the following: a. 2020 Austin city council candidate forums: including an update from city staff b. Working group status reports and/or recommendations on the following. i. Working group one (Vice-Chair Ohueri and Commissioners Greenberg and Lerner) on the following subjects: - Commission sanctions including effectiveness, past cases, and recommendations. - Potential amendments to City Code, Chapter 2-7 (Ethics and Financial Disclosure). …

Approved Minutes — original pdf

ETHICS REVIEW COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, August 12, 2020 The Ethics Review Commission (“Commission”) convened in a regular meeting on Wednesday, August 12, 2020, Austin, Texas via Videoconference. Chair Luis Soberon called the meeting to order at 6:06 p.m. Commissioners in attendance: Chair Luis Soberon, Vice-Chair J. Michael Ohueri, Secretary Kenneth “Tray” Gober, and Commissioners Debra Danburg, Betsy Greenberg, Mary Kahle, Raafia Lari, Robin Lerner, and Donna Beth McCormick. Commissioners Nathan Ryan and Pedro A. Villalobos were absent. City Staff in Attendance: Lynn Carter, Commission Executive Liaison & Assistant City Attorney, and Sue Palmer, Staff Liaison, Law Department. CITIZEN COMMUNICATION Each person who signed up to speak prior to the meeting being called to order and who designated this item on which to speak, or who did not designate an agenda item on which to speak will be allowed three minutes to speak. Three members of the public spoke: Ana Aguirre, Zenobia Joseph, and Megan Meisenbach. 1. OLD BUSINESS Discussion and possible action regarding the following: a. 2020 Austin city council candidate forums: including an update from city staff Commission Executive Liaison Lynn Carter updated the Commission on the status of the 2020 City Council election candidate forums, which included the following in part. The September issue of the Austin Energy/utility newsletter will provide information on the candidate forums. The moderated candidate forums will air on ATXN.TV in English and Spanish, cable TV channel 6, AT & T U-Verse channel 99, KAZI FM 88.7. The moderated candidate forums will be streamed live and also available on the archive at ATXN (in English and Spanish). All candidate forums moderated by the League of Women Voters-Austin Area (LWV-AA) will be conducted virtually. During the moderated candidate forums, a limited number of citizens will be able to call into a phone number to listen to the forums if they do not have a TV, radio, or computer/internet access to the candidate forums. The LWV-AA is requesting questions from citizens prior to the moderated forums. 1 Secondly, candidates will be given an opportunity to record a five-minute video- recorded statement with ATXN, which will be posted on the ATXN website. If a candidate does not have a computer, the City will provide a computer for the candidate to use if needed and the City will assist with other technology needs for both the moderated candidate forums and the five-minute recorded statement. The third forum …