Aberdeen Conflict-of-Interest Ordinance Would Allow Council to Exempt Schaunaman from Ethics Rules on Rebrand Contract

The Aberdeen City Council is taking Native American Day off. When they reconvene tomorrow evening, they’ll take up Councilman Rob Ronayne’s clarification of the conflict-of-interest ordinance, which received support on first reading September 30 from every council member except the one with the biggest blind spot for conflicts of interest, mayor and marketer Travis Schaunaman.

Proposed Ordinance 19-09-03 would strike the current conflict-of-interest ordinance and add this primary prohibition against getting rich off one’s office:

Neither the mayor nor any council members may have an interest in a contract nor receive a direct benefit from a contract in an amount greater than five thousand dollars or multiple contracts in an amount greater than five thousand dollars with the same party within a twelve-month period to which the city or any person who received an allocation of municipal funds, for the calendar year of the commencement of the contract, in an amount exceeding $100,000 or which allocation represents more than 50% of the total revenues of such person except as provided in subsection (c) is a party except as provided in subsection (e) [Proposed Ordinance 19-09-03, Section (a), first reading approved by Aberdeen City Council 2019.09.30].

The Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce issued the request for proposals for a city rebrand in June. In August, Mayor Schaunaman unethically used his public platform to boost his company’s bid for that contract, the value of which is likely greater than $5,000. The Chamber received $110,000 from this year’s city budget for marketing like this rebrand and another $15,000 for kicks and giggles. The Chamber’s partners in awarding the rebrand contract, the Downtown Association and the Convention and Visitors Bureau, received $100,000 and $435,000, respectively.  That $660,000 to those three organizations represents 54% of the city promotional funds in the FY2020 budget. Ordinance 19-09-03(a) says pretty directly that Mayor/marketer Schaunaman would have to drop out of contention for the Aberdeen rebrand.

However, Ordinance 19-09-03 includes exceptions that still might let Schaunaman cling to his bid and his taxpayer-subsidized livelihood. Section (e) allows the city council to allow one of its members to derive direct benefit from an otherwise prohibited contract under three conditions:

1. The person has provided full written disclosure to the city council agency of all parties to the contract, the person’s role in the contract, the purpose or objective of the contract, the consideration or benefit conferred or agreed to be conferred upon each party, and the duration of the contract;
2. The city council finds that the terms of the contract are fair, reasonable, and not contrary to the public interest; and
3. Any request for authorization or city council action are public records. The official minutes of the city council shall include any governing board action on each request for authorization and shall be filed with the city finance department and city attorney [Proposed Ordinance 19-09-3, Section (e)].

There you go, Travis! Just crank up the marketing, get four more little buddies like rookie Councilman Josh Rife elected, and you can use a voting majority (the member seeking the exemption doesn’t get to vote) to grant yourself all the taxpayer-subsidized contracts you want! You and your mob-rule Schaunamaniacs should consider that entirely fair.

Ordinance 19-09-03 also writes the city charter’s seemingly self-evident ban (Section 7.01) on misusing elected office for personal profit—”The use of public office for private gain is prohibited“—into city ordinance. Evidently things written in the charter aren’t really law unless we codify them. Ordinance 19-09-03 copies the charter’s five examples of use of public office for private gain and adds a couple details—for instance, adding a $25 limit on the gifts public officials can receive each year. The new ordinance also copies the charter’s language stating that misuse of public office for private gain “includes but is not limited to” those five examples.

Mayor Schaunaman’s fan club, which seems inordinately invested in cheering for their golden boy, will surely crowd the chamber tomorrow night to demand that Aberdeen not take a stand for ethical behavior. We can only hope the eight members who supported the new conflict-of-interest ordinance on first reading will withstand this cult-of-personality mob and uphold the pretty basic ethical principle laid out admirably by Councilman Dennis “Mike” Olson at the September 30 Council meeting:

“I don’t want my involvement in receiving taxpayer dollars as a council member to influence my decision. So I’m against anyone on this council receiving any taxpayer dollars for anything we’re involved in,” Olson said. “I sacrificed that when I accepted that position as council member when Laure Swanson resigned. Because she wanted her family business to prosper in the city of Aberdeen.

“It was a very honorable thing she did,” Olson continued. “I had been doing some consulting work for the city prior to my (being) appointed to the council, and I realized at that moment I could no longer be involved with any city business in the future [Shannon Marvel, “Aberdeen City Council: First Reading of Conflict-of-Interest Ordinance Passes {paywall},” Aberdeen American News, 2019.10.01].

Our local paper, which was dragged into this ethical mess when Mayor Schaunaman misused the weekly column the city grants the mayor to promote his private business interest, agrees:

Public leaders, elected or otherwise, should always avoid conflicts of interest, directly or indirectly. Not only that, as we have said before, they should hold to the higher standard of avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

It is the right thing to do.

…It should be a matter of being self-aware. But sometimes, for reasons that can include simple oversight, it’s not.

Schaunaman and some of his supporters claim nobody should worry about a potential conflict of interest when it comes to the city marketing situation because he can be trusted. But that’s not the point.

This is about making a rule that all city council members, now and in the future, will need to abide by. And other local governments should take note and follow suit if they haven’t already addressed this topic [editorial, “It’s Clear the City Needs a Conflict Ordinance {paywall},” Aberdeen American News, 2019.10.12].

Council convenes Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. The conflict-of-interest ordinance is the first action item on the agenda, following open forum and an award ceremony.