Even though the Bainbridge Island City Council decided not to disband the Ethics Program last week, committee members were apprehensive at their online Zoom meeting Monday.

Councilmember Michael Pollock wanted to get rid of the committee entirely and replace the process with a professional hearing examiner.

Councilmember Brenda Fantroy-Johnson made a heartfelt plea to change the process. “The Ethics Committee has ethical issues,” she said.

But the majority of the council voted for it to continue, adding at a recent retreat changing it was not listed as a priority.

Tyler Weaver, committee chair, said he watched the council meeting, and it looks like they will stay in place for the foreseeable future. “We’ll proceed on,” he said. No one else on the committee wanted to speak on the topic.

Members did say they want to continue with their plan to do some training about the Ethics Committee.

“There are a lot of misconceptions about problems with the ethics board,” committee member Jim Cash said.

Committee member Dona Keating added, “There’s a lot of misinformation out there about what we do.”

Cash said there are somenew committees and a lot of new committee members who don’t know what the ethics board does.

Weaver said he has a friend on another committee who didn’t even know ethics rules apply to him. “He had no idea,” Weaver said, adding he would work with city manager Blair King to get that training back on track.

Keating recommended putting information on the city website to inform people. But Weaver said he wanted to talk with King first.

“I will see what the universe looks like with the city manager,” he said. “Get the temperature on what it is.”

Another problem the committee has is a lack of three members as Karen Anderson recently resigned.

“We need new members,” committee member David Mallon said.

A call went out for new volunteers some time ago, but the City Council has tabled the process at least a couple of times.

Mallon, who is waiting on reappointment, said those people should be contacted to see if they are still interested, hinting half-jokingly that they may not be if they watched the last City Council meeting.

Members also talked about the need for a joint committee meeting with some members of the council. But Keating and Cash said that may not happen until a new council is seated after the November election.

Councilmember Joe “Deets may not want to be involved at this point,” as he is seeking re-election, Cash said.

Weaver ended the meeting by saying he plans to send a series of emails asking city leaders, “OK, now what?”

Island Center

The only ethics complaint the committee talked about involved Island Center and its sub-area planning committee.

The Ethics Committee decided recently not to rule on that complaint until a lawsuit is decided. Weaver reminded members they set it aside because they didn’t want any decision they made to be part of the suit.

“We decided it does apply, but it’s still an open case being tried in court so we have to wait it out,” Mallon said.

At the last council meeting, the Island Center subcommittee was disbanded as its work was finished. So the Ethics Committee wondered if it should even continue to look at it. Members are no longer public figures without the committee.

Weaver reminded them that the hearing examiner last year dismissed a complaint because a person was no longer in office.

“There’s nothing in the ethics code about hearing complaints about former committee members,” Keating said.

She added that because their work is supposed to be educational rather than punitive that a ruling could still be warranted. “We can deal with the issue without dealing with the complaint,” she said.

Keating said they need guidance from the City Council on this. For months the committee has been asking for more guidance and communication with the council.

“We can’t review everything that comes across our desk. We have to draw the line,” she said.

Cash added, “The partnership between ourselves and the council needs to be brought into play.”