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Santa Clarita City Council sets up ethics guidelines - Some residents say policy is not enough

SANTA CLARITA - Responding to citizen demands, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously established Santa Clarita's first set of government ethics guidelines.

The ethics code essentially consolidates existing policies, rules, philosophies and laws into one document, but does not add new guidelines.

It covers elected and appointed officials, committee members and city employees.

But some residents said the policy didn't go far enough, and they called for the creation of an ethics commission. "It's called checks and balances," resident Leigh Hart said.

Including an ethics commission in the code would have been redundant, said Michael Murphy, Santa Clarita's intergovernmental relations officer, who developed the policy along with the City Attorney's Office.

"We felt that the mechanisms are already in place for reporting unethical, inappropriate, or, in some cases, unlawful activities," Murphy said   Read Full Article...