Doc Drop: Council Agenda - Oct. 8, 2012

 New School Update

Presentations on progress at the new Hyattsville Area Elementary School. Officials broke ground on this new school on Nicholson Street in West Hyattsville last spring. The two-story, 92,000 square-foot school is slated to be complete by next summer. 

Re-org Updates

The city council will also get an update on the implementation plans for the new city Community Services Department and Community and Economic Development Department. During the city's last budget debates, council members voted to reorganize some administrative departments. The Department of Community Services will handle a number of functions, including parks and recreation, resident outreach and programs for the elderly, among others. 

Ethics Ordinance Progress

City leaders are working towards adoption of an official ethics ordinance which will require all city council members and city council and mayoral candidates to disclose some aspects of their financial, property and business holdings. 

Tonight, the city council will take its first vote to approve the new ordinance. 

The ethics law is required by a new state law taking effect designed to make elected leaders more transparent. I've written about this before. Here's where you can get some details on the ordinance and some reaction from city council members. 

The city's ordinance also requires that the city appoint a local ethics board to investigate charges of unethical behavior among city officials. 

Some members of city council, like Ward 2 Councilor Shani Warner, have resigned themselves to the new ordinance. The line generally goes that while ethics regulation is needed in government, the disclosure requirements could dissuade some city council candidates from throwing their hats into the ring for office. 

The council, it should be noted, pretty much must approve the ethics ordinance before it. The bill has already gone through the state ethics commission for approval, a process which took almost half a year. If any changes are made, the ethics commission must approve those, too. 

Tonight's meeting will be held at the Hyattsville Municipal Building on Gallatin Street at 8 p.m. The meetings are also broadcast on Comcast channel 71 and Verizon channel 12.

Full agenda attached to this article.