By Suzanne Sprague
DALLAS – Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 Reporter: Two weeks ago, when the Dallas City Council spent a full day debating the merits of a proposed new ethics code, the discussion was often acrimonious and sarcastic. Yesterday's vote carried some of the same tone...
Sound of Mayor Ron Kirk and Dallas City Councilwoman Laura Miller arguing
Sprague: ...but mostly, council members held their tongues. Councilwoman Laura Miller did propose 14 amendments to the code, trying to make its regulations tougher. But there was often little to no debate.
Mayor Ron Kirk: With no further discussion, all those in favor vote yes, all those opposed vote no.
Sprague: Two-thirds of Miller's proposals died at the horseshoe, including one that would have required most city officials to disclose financial holdings such as stocks and bonds.
Laura Miller, Dallas City Councilwoman: And one thing I learned in the last two days, trying to work the vote, is that people down here don't want to disclose. They don't want you to know what they have and what they own and where their property is and what their stocks are and where their money is. They just don't want to.
Sprague: Miller also wanted to compel city officials to cooperate with the new ethics commission if it was conducting an investigation, unless that would infringe on the official's Fifth Amendment rights. That measure failed. But by a one-vote margin, the council did agree to prohibit themselves from appointing each other's spouses or close relatives to the city's major boards and commissions. Mayor Ron Kirk called the compromises good for Dallas.
Kirk: I'm proud of what the council's done; and I concur with the sentiments of Max Wells, who chaired the task force, that while, you know, it might not have been 100 percent on par with what they've done, it's substantially [the same]. We took the meat of what the task force recommended and we implemented it.
Sprague: Critics, including members of the watchdog group Common Cause, disagreed. They said the Council gutted the original ethics proposal. Other observers said the Council might be going too far. Marvin Crenshaw and Roy Williams, well-known activists in the African- American community, told the council that while they favored good government, they questioned the timing of the new ethics code.
Marvin Crenshaw and Roy Williams, Activists: After the Al Lipscomb trial, we are all shaded up under that umbrella as crooks. We see this emerging as a witch hunt.
Sprague: Race has been a subtext in the ethics debate since it began over a year ago. The push for a tough ethics code followed public criticism of then-City Manager John Ware, the mayor, and Council Member Al Lipscomb, all of whom are African-American. So some minority groups equated the ethics debate with an effort to wrench power from them. Race never entered the public debate at city hall yesterday, although a number of the votes fell along racial lines. Regardless, the final unanimous vote to adopt the new ethics code may be the last public debate on the issue for some time. Again, Laura Miller.
Miller: You know, after two years of worrying about ethics, I'm taking a break. But clearly if the ethics commission is stymied because they can't get information, employees won't testify, everything's behind closed doors, I'll offer some changes. And hopefully, they'll be accepted. But we'll see. Who knows?
Sprague: The city's new code of ethics goes into effect January 1st, 2001. For KERA 90.1, I'm Suzanne Sprague.