The Dallas Inspector General wants to make it easier to file charges against city officials, and some council members don’t like it.
The Dallas City Council was briefed on several amendments to the Dallas Code of Ethics on Wednesday. The updates included changes in language and definitions governing things like conflicts of interest, campaign activities, and disclosure of confidential information. The code was last amended in December 2021.
Wednesday’s briefing also offered an opportunity for the council to speak publicly about the Inspector General’s Office and Ethics Advisory Commission matters — specifically the evidentiary standard when prosecuting a city official.
View the entire presentation, prepared by Laura Morrison of the City Attorney’s Office, here.
Dallas Inspector General’s Office
District 14 Councilmember Paul Ridley asked about changing the standard of evidence, which effectively would lower the burden of proof necessary to file charges.
“What problems are we solving by changing the standard of evidence?” he asked. “Which specific case do you think would have gone the other way that you think should have been different based upon the existing standard of evidence?”
Inspector General Bart Bevers said he took office about a year ago and repeatedly heard that Dallas had five city council members who were convicted of felonies over a 16-year time period.
“There’s another problem that nobody seems to talk about in the media, and that’s John Q. Public and Jane Taxpayer,” he said. “They want ethics reform addressed. They want ethics enforcement addressed. The way that you do that is, I guess you could say you create a culture at a thought level. The things that I look at are the things that I think about, and the things that I think about are the things I meditate on. The things that I meditate on bear out in my action. My action forms my character, and my character delivers the destiny.”
The explanation left some council members scratching their heads.
“I felt like the entire answer was incredibly arbitrary,” said District 1 Councilmember Chad West. “I felt like I was sitting in the Twilight Zone as I was listening to that explanation.”
If Dallas stays on the path of demanding “clear and convincing” evidence rather than the lighter language used nationwide — “a preponderance of the evidence” — it means fewer substantiated cases, which translates into an incentive to violate, Bevers said.
“I think all these revisions are steps in the right direction,” Bevers said. “When people start to see allegations getting substantiated, that raises the thought level and that’s where the transformation begins.”
About a dozen cases could not be filed last year because of the high burden of proof standard, which is unique to Dallas, Morrison explained. Ridley argued that maybe some of those cases shouldn’t be filed.
“We’re talking about high stakes here,” he said. “We’re talking about people’s reputations. Their careers are at stake. I think we need that higher standard of evidence.”
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Omar Narvaez and West agreed.
“I think it should be a high burden of proof,” West said. “If we’re going to be putting people on the chopping block and their reputations, I think it should be a rigorous process. I absolutely won’t support changing that.”
Other Amendments
Clarifications were made to the council’s policy on accepting gifts and financial disclosures.
Morrison spoke briefly about disclosures of confidential information. The matter came up recently as council members were advised by the City’s Communications Office to limit their public comments on a recent ransomware attack.
“An unauthorized disclosure of confidential information has always been a violation of the Code of Ethics, but we are now creating an offense for that conduct,” Morrison said. “So now if you commit an unauthorized disclosure of confidential information … you could be prosecuted in Municipal Court for a Class C misdemeanor.”
District 12 Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn, who chairs the Government Performance and Financial Management Committee until new appointments are made later this month, said she encourages feedback on the proposed changes.
“This is going to be a continuous quality improvement process,” she said. “As loopholes or other areas of concern are brought up, they can be addressed so the public can have confidence in what happens here at all of City Hall, not just around the horseshoe. This isn’t just about us. I think that’s important. I think we all need a little more faith in government these days.”
