Peachtree City's

Ethics Board will meet 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall to discuss potential

revisions to the city's ethics ordinance.

One of those

revisions would be a rather significant change instead of deliberating

the evidence in public, the board would do so in private and announce

the decision to the public either immediately or at a later date.

Currently,

board members hear evidence from both sides at a hearing open to the public,

and they also deliberate in public after the hearing phase is concluded.

Any changes

to the city's ethics ordinance must be approved by council at a later

date.

The board met

twice in October to hash through the ethics ordinance and strengthen it,

particularly to keep frivolous complaints from being filed against city

officials and employees. According to minutes of those meetings, board

members said they wanted some kind of penalty for those who bring frivolous

ethics complaints such as a fine, reimbursement of legal expenses, letters

to newspapers regarding elected officials and termination of employees.

Councilman

Murray Weed, who is a municipal attorney, offered to research possible

penalties for the board's information.

The ethics

board members are appointed individually by city council members. The

board was called into action twice last year, once on a complaint against

councilman Steve Rapson for voting on a matter involving the Development

Authority of Peachtree City, whom his wife is suing in court for unequal

pay. The board also met at the insistence of Mayor Steve Brown, who cited

himself for allowing a city employee to drive his daughter to golf camp

at a local course when he had to attend a crucial meeting on the local

option sales tax.

The board admonished

both men but took no further action. Brown later repaid the city the estimated

$8.94 in staff time used to drive his daughter to the event.

Weed also suggested

that the board should have the ability to dismiss complaints which are

unjustified, and by doing so a similar complaint against the same person

couldn't be filed within six months of the original complaint.

The board also

wants to make city volunteers subject to the city's ethics ordinance in

addition to employees and public officials.

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