Board members would likely be from outside Lake Orion

By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
LAKE ORION — During its meeting on Nov. 27, the Lake Orion Village Council discussed appointing three people to the village’s newly created ethics board.
The village council adopted an Ethics Ordinance in October and creating an ethics board was one of the tenets in the ordinance.
The ethics board’s purpose would be to hold a hearing and issue an advisory opinion should an ethics complaint be made against not just elected officials, but anyone who holds a position in the village, including employees.
The village council would then be responsible for issuing any sanctions for a violation and the village manager would be responsible for imposing any discipline for a violation, the ordinance states.
At a previous meeting on Nov. 13, Councilmember Michael Lamb nominated three village residents to make up the board, but the motion failed as the majority of council did not want to have a nomination process. Several council members said they preferred an application process.
“I was very much in favor of this and have been asking for this since I took over the presidency,” said council President Jerry Narsh. “With that, I think it’s very important for council to consider that in order to have transparency and the public trust in any board of ethics that we pick – it’s my interpretation that we need to consider people from outside the Village of Lake Orion, outside the community. Why I say that is, not only is anybody inside the village always going to be subject to, at the end of the day, this body. Can there be accusations of friendship or authority or some other undue influence because of friendships or positions? I think it behooves us, for the sake of the public, that we have people that aren’t necessarily involved in the Village of Lake Orion, in the day-to-day issues we have.”
President Pro-Tem Teresa Rutt made the motion to direct village administration to create an application and criteria for eligible candidates, and to advertise for the board of ethics positions so people can apply and be interviewed by council at a later date.
While some council members did not feel it necessary to review the application and eligibility criteria before the positions were advertised, the council as a whole agreed to also direct administration to bring the application and criteria back to council for approval at its next meeting.
The motion was passed by council unanimously.
The Lake Orion Village Council meets at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 11 in council chambers at Village Hall, 21 E. Church Street.