TRAVERSE CITY — The Code of Ethics Policy for the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners hasn’t been updated in years, and some commissioners want to look at holding themselves more accountable.
“The conversation was definitely triggered by issues that have come up in the last year or two,” said vice chair TJ Andrews,” but I think there’s a more overarching need to look at this irrespective of those.”
Those issues include charges of soliciting prostitute against former commissioner Brad Jewett and new allegations against current commissioner Rob Hentschel.
“I think we have had a series of issues on our county commission that have raised concerns, that have raised public ire, that have raised questions about ‘What is the board? What can the board do? How does the board regulate itself?’ And when we look at that policy that was last updated in 2019, there’s not a lot there,” said Andrews.
Commissioners say the current code doesn’t go far enough in addressing what happens when someone on the board violates the rules.
“There are no consequences for elected officials, only for appointed and staff people,” said Andrews. “We need an internal process to investigate, evaluate and ascertain if there are credible concerns that indicate a violation of the ethics policy. And if there are, what are we going to do? The proposals we have in front of us would lay those out.”
In addition to making any consequences more transparent, Andrews also believes the public should have a say in the new standards set for their commissioners. They plan to raise the issue at their upcoming meetings.