City of Santa Monica Introduces Values-Based Code of Ethics
May 10, 2016 3:40 PM
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — The City of Santa Monica is committed to continually improving trust and confidence in City government. To that end, there is a new, easy-to-use way to share information about possible ethics violations observed of City officials and staff. Tips can be made by phone, email, or web 24 hours a day.
City Council adopted a values-based Code of Ethics built on the principles of fairness, transparency, accountability, and integrity to strengthen the City’s commitment to the highest standards of good governance. The Code was created using best practices from the Institute of Local Governance and International City Manager’s Association (ICMA). It reflects the high ethical standards demonstrated by City staff each day.
“Council and City Officials take ethical allegations very seriously and will investigate all reports,” said Mayor Tony Vazquez. “The new ethics tip line will be a valuable, but hopefully rarely needed, service where the public can provide information about an ethics violation any time, any day.”
While the organization has been without a Council-adopted values-based Code of Ethics, the day-to-day standards of ethical behavior by staff have consistently been high. State law, local law, and long-standing administrative instructions detail expectations to avoid conflicts of interests, obligations to remove one from potential conflicts of interest, protections for whistleblowers, and grievance processes. Adoption of a values-based Code of Ethics reinforces expectations and provides staff with more resources and training to appropriately handle possible ethical dilemmas.
In conjunction with the tip line, City staff is also coordinating a rollout of ethics resources for staff and others to help communicate the expectations of all staff to live up to the highest ethical ideals. Examples of new resources include an Administrative Instruction outlining how ethics investigations will be handled, an intranet page with ethics use cases and other resources for staff, and ongoing training for all staff.
The rollout of the ethics hotline comes at the same time the City Council will consider recommendations from staff at its May 10th meeting based on the Independent Review conducted by John Hueston on how to best enforce the Oaks Initiative.
View Santa Monica’s Code of Ethics.
Tips can be made at:
Phone: 844-4-SMETHIC
Web: ethicshotline.org/santamonica
Email: santamonica@myeccho.org
CORRECTION: This piece orginally published with the incorrect ethics number. It has been corrected to 844-4-SMETHIC from 844-SM-ETHIC.
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Media Contact
Constance Farrell
Communications & Public Information Manager
Constance.Farrell@santamonica.gov