WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — At a Warner Robins city council meeting on April 15th, Councilman Larry Curtis asked his peers a simple question.
"I would like to entertain the idea of Warner Robins becoming a certified city of ethics through GMA," said Curtis. "Does anybody have any problems with that or concerns?"
A certified city of ethics is a designation from the Georgia Municipal Association (G.M.A.) reserved for cities that pass a specific ordinance for handling ethical complaints against elected officials.
The issue itself was not up for a vote at this meeting -- Curtis raised it for discussion only.
Most of council seemed to support the idea.
"I think anything we can do to become more transparent, to be the most ethical as possible, is probably a good move in the right direction," said Councilman Keith Lauritsen.
Soon after Lauritsen's comment, Mayor Toms instructed Curtis to prepare the first official step toward earning that distinction and then present it to council at the next meeting.
If council does eventually bring the issue for a vote, what would it mean? According to Warner Robins city attorney Jim Elliott, most cities of ethics ordinances handle complaints in one of two ways.
"Many cities have an administrative law judge, a local attorney, or maybe not a local attorney (who) would hear allegations of complaints and then make a recommendation to the governing authority which is the mayor and council," said Elliott. "Other cities have adopted a citizen panel that would hear those cases and make the same kind of recommendation."
Elliott says the process would typically be reserved for non-criminal complaints of ethical wrongdoing. According to the attorney, the final decision on how to handle a complaint would rest with city council and punishments wouldn't typically be any harsher than a public censure.
Elliott added that he thinks Warner Robins might be one of the larger cities in Georgia without a city of ethics certification.