City Councils Code of Conduct and Decorum
NWNA Members:
Under the leadership of Council Member John Gunter, the City of Cape Coral amended Resolution 3-01 to now include a Code of Conduct for City Council Members and the Mayor. This Resolution is on the agenda for Monday’s City Council Meeting. The entire Resolution can be found by clicking on the link below.
For your convenience and for a faster read, I have included the newly added Section on Decorum, Code of Conduct.
R. DECORUM
The members of the City Council shall always serve the citizens of the City of Cape Coral. Each elected official shall act in a professional manner to promote public trust and confidence in the government with complete transparency and avoid even the appearance or perception of impropriety while holding public office.
1. Code of Conduct
It is the policy of the City Council to uphold, promote, and demand the highest standard of ethics from all members of the Council. The Mayor and Councilmembers shall maintain the highest standards of personal integrity, truthfulness, honesty, and fairness
during the performance of their duties.The Mayor and Councilmembers are leaders
of the City and shall always display a positive image in their representation of the City. At no time shall they bring discredit to the citizens, fellow Councilmembers, or the City of Cape Coral, due to their personal or professional conduct.
a. Public Trust. Mayor and Councilmembers shall always serve the residents of Cape Coral equally and be receptive to receiving input from residents to make decisions in the best interest of the City of Cape Coral. It will be the responsibility of the Mayor and each Councilmember to stay engaged and be responsive to the citizens.
b. Integrity. Mayor and Councilmembers shall always be truthful and forthright when presenting information during any discussions, and not use false, inaccurate, or manipulated information to support their position during any topic of discussion.
c. Responsibility. The Mayor and Councilmembers shall always make decisions based on the facts and merits of the issues, and shall always focus on the merits of the discussion and not the personalities involved.
The Mayor and Councilmembers support the public’s right to know and encourage their engagement in conversation to promote meaningful public involvement in all
issues in order to gain value from the diverse opinions within discussions to build a consensus for the merits of the decision.
d. Respectfulness. The Mayor and Councilmembers shall always treat one another, staff, and the citizens of Cape Coral with the utmost courtesy and respect.
e. Image. The Mayor and Councilmembers are a direct representation of the City of Cape Coral. While representing the City of Cape Coral in their official capacity, the Mayor and Councilmembers shall always dress in business attire
and promote the City of Cape Coral with professionalism to convey a positive image.f. The Mayor and Councilmembers shall always comply with all federal, state, and local laws, including but not limited to, the Florida Sunshine and Open
Meeting Laws.
Page 8 of 132. Meetings
The Mayor and Councilmembers shall always be prepared by reviewing the agenda and the associated information to engage in a productive, attentive, and respectful discussion on each topic.a. Members shall exert their best effort to attend all meetings and arrive in a timely manner. No member shall walk out of the meeting while a roll call is being taken. After roll call, any member wishing to leave the dais shall advise the presiding officer of his or her desire to do so prior to departing. No more
than three (3) members shall leave the dais at any one time so as to maintain a quorum.
b. Any member who plans to be absent must give notice as provided for in Section G. Cancellation of Meetings above.
c. When a member plans to leave a meeting prior to its conclusion, the member shall notify the entire Council no later than at the beginning of the Council meeting. If an emergency arises during the meeting causing the need to leave the meeting, the member must announce to the entire Council their departure
whenever practicable.
d. When Council members are either members of or liaisons to any other board, committee, commission, task force or any other entity, the City Council members shall attend the meetings on a regular basis.
3. Censure
The City Council shall have the ability to review negative actions of members of City Council that do not reflect well on the City, or that bring discredit to the City, particularly violations of the rules of decorum stated herein.
City Council shall have the ability to address the breaches of decorum, when warranted, through means that include, but are not limited to, removing a member from any City-appointed position, as well as censuring a member by a majority vote of Council.
The addition of a Code of Conduct to the Resolution is partly the result of your comments made during the GO Bond discussion at Council. This is a great example of residents speaking, elected officials listening, and action taken.
Please consider the following
1. Send an ecomment at https://www.capecoral.net/department/clerk/ecomments.php
or send an email to the City Clerk at ctyclk@capecoral.net
expressing your thanks and appreciation for Council taking this action.
2. Hold your elected officials accountable by reading the Decorum section and alerting them when you see something that is not right.
3. Continue to deal in facts.
Thank you for being members of the NWNA.