tony jeter dot com

The recent publicity concerning Council expenses has brought about a very positive and necessary change. All expenses will now require the approval of two Councilmembers thus removing City Staff from being in the potentially uncomfortable position of having to question a Councilmember’s judgement. This policy will be good for staff, Councilmembers and the City.

To prepare for the Council discussion I spent several hours familiarizing myself with the City policies concerning travel and expenses. I also studied the expenses in question as well as my own from the last six years. I must admit that I was embarrassed at what I learned during my studies. I was embarrassed at how little I knew about the policies. I was embarrassed to discover that I actually failed to follow the policies myself on three different occasions. I turned in three receipts that did not have the names of people I dined with or what the topic of discussion was. And finally I was embarrassed at how out of hand things had gotten and the lack of oversight on the part of the Council in policing our own expenses.

This is where I must swallow the frog. First, and foremost, I apologize for my lack of attention to this matter. Ignorance is not an excuse. In fact, there is no excuse. I will be much more diligent from this point forward monitoring Council expenses. Second, I will write a check this week to the City for $57.84 which is the total for the three receipts I turned in without proper documentation. I am now very well versed on the policies concerning our travel and expenses and will not make this mistake again. Moving forward I will push to make sure future Councilmembers are provided more training on this matter. Finally, I will no longer carry a City credit card. In the future I will use my personal card for City expenses. This will put the burden on me to make sure I have receipts so I can get reimbursed.

In case you are wondering, the phrase relates to Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer saying, “If you have to swallow a frog, don’t look at it too long.”

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This line for George Orwell’s book Animal Farm crystallizes how I believe we, as elected officials, should conduct ourselves. Just because we can doesn’t mean we should. Just because something is legal doesn’t make it right.

We, as Councilmembers, are not owed trust by the people that elected us. We instead have to prove that we are worthy of the confidence the electorate has placed us. We must bend over backwards, day in and day out, to remove all appearances of conflicts of interest. Any hint of self-dealing cripple’s the Council’s credibility when tough and controversial decisions must be made.

There is a relevant yet irrelevant piece of information I need to make everyone aware of concerning controversy around awarding of construction contracts to Councilmembers. I myself did business with the City for the first 3½ years that I was on the Council. I was providing advertising services under a 5-year contract that I was awarded for almost a year before being elected to the Council. The total amount of business I did with the City during those years was approx. $23,678. I have not done any business with the City since January, 2006.

It has been suggested to me, on more than one occasion, that this very fact makes me a hypocrite. I disagree with this position for one reason: there is a huge difference between designing a brochure or logo and building a million dollar road. The jobs I did were simple. I designed a brochure and the City printed it. Period. I was not required to be bonded. Nor did I have to regularly interface with numerous City employees including inspectors, engineers, road crews, and administration. To compare the two is like comparing apples and oranges.

In the near future I will further elaborate on my specific concerns arising from awarding construction contracts to a Councilmember.

I have received numerous questions about the City’s policies and procedures regarding Councilmember’s expenses. The three policies regarding travel, meals and Council reimbursements are included in this post. I am hopeful that the Council will have a productive discussion on the topic of Councilmember expenses at this Thursday’s Council workshop.

Business Meals

Travel

Council Reimbursement Procedures

What a great afternoon to spend at the park. My brief time at Terrace Gardens with my wife and kids was a nice way to end a busy week. The park was very active with a variety of folks having a good time. There were toddlers to seniors enjoying the clean, well-groomed jewel of a neighborhood park. The best part for my tribe was the Clown Swing. There is not another swing like it left in town. All the others have gone the way of the towering stainless steel slides and high diving boards. If you haven’t been to a park lately I encourage you to visit one soon. Our Parks Department is doing a bang up job of keeping them ready and waiting for you.

Oh yeah, I will do my best to protect the last clown swing on the verge of extinction during my last two years on the Council.

The time is right for an Ethics Commission to be created to assist the Temple City Council in overseeing the business of the community. It’s not that anything is wrong with the Council. But in the wake of a hard-fought battle for State Represenative (District 55), some people have been left wondering if we elected officials are good stewards of their money. If the people are growing uneasy with us, their City Council, it’s time to take positive action.

When that is combined with our past practice of awarding of large construction contracts to a sitting Councilman one can see why people might be uneasy. Voters have every right to expect the people they elect to public office to be diligent and stay above reproach. Staying out of the “grey but legal” areas individually and corporately should be one of our top priorities.

I have lost count of the number of phone calls and emails I have received over the last six years from irate citizens concerning my votes on various issues. In fact, we don’t even allow our kids to check voice messages because, as you can imagine, some people have no couth. I didn’t run to please people. I ran to make a difference and do the right thing so I am not too worried about making people mad. However, I take the reputation of the Council as an institution very seriously. It deeply troubles me when we do, or allow, things to happen that might tarnish that reputation. This is why I voted no last week to awarding the contract to Councilman Schneider. This is also why I am going to propose the formation of an Ethics Commission to assist us in overseeing the business of the City. This Commission should be made up of truly independent individuals who would aspire to help guide the Council and other city boards through the maze of issues that confront us/them regularly. This Commission could also be charged with overseeing Councilmember’s expenses thus removing another area of potential embarrassment.

The headline in Saturday’s paper “Councilman protests in-house bids” followed by the sub-head “Jeter wants to ban member bids on city projects” is a real stretch.

The quote I emailed the newspaper was as follows; “I voted yes for the resolution, even though I did not support it, because I was informed by the City Attorney that the contract must be awarded by State law to the lowest responsible bidder. To vote no would have effectively killed the resolution since the abstentions of the Mayor and Councilmember Schneider left only three votes and our Charter requires three affirmative votes for a resolution to pass. I was uncomfortable with this resolution due to the fact that two City Councilmembers would realize significant financial gain from the awarding of this contract. I believe this raises issues that deserve both introspection and discussion by the Council and I look forward to the Council setting aside time in the near future to discuss these issues.”

I did not use the words “protest” or “ban” verbally during the meeting or in the quote above. Those words were chosen by the writer or editor to stir the pot.

I would’ve provided you a link to the newspaper article but it was unavailable.