I UPDATED THIS ENTIRE POST, because I apparently am a dumbass and did not read the quote correctly
It doesn’t surprise me that an ethics complaint against councilor Staggers was filed only a few days before the city election (somebody was playing politics) and it also does not surprise me that it was found to have no merit;
City Clerk Debra Owen said “a former city councilor” had a complaint filed against him, which the Board of Ethics found to have no merit. But the ethics board instructed him not to speak publicly about it.
That could be a whole sleugh of people. If we are only talking about someone on the last council, that would narrow it down to Costello, Knudson or Beninga. My assumption would be that it would not have been Costello (since he was running against Staggers) so that means it would be Beninga or Knudson, which is a possibility.
My educated guess (and I have had ZERO conversations about this with Staggers – like he said in the article, he will not discuss) is that Darrin Smith filed the complaint. As it is well known, Smith cried to Stormland TV news about Kermit’s (supposed) junkets that he took while councilor because none of the other councilors would take the trips.
I have learned this, it WAS someone involved with one of the mayoral campaigns.
But like I said above, it is a huge mystery because ANYBODY can file a ethics ‘complaint’ but citizens can no longer file ‘opinions’.
What is not a mystery is that the rules were changed since I asked for an ethics ‘opinion’ When I asked for an opinion I had to fill out a form that asked me if I was okay with my name being public or not, I could have chosen for it NOT to be public, but I try to roll with the ‘transparency’ thingy. It is also not a mystery that Mayor Munson asked for a ethics opinion on Staggers when he was assisting the Drake Springs pool petition drive, another ethics issue that was found to have no merit.
This goes back to that whole ‘transparency’ thingy that politicians love to talk about during campaigns but quickly forget about once they are elected. But at least they are looking at it;
Councilors discussed amending the ordinance to make the process more public.
Anything. And I repeat ANYTHING that public officials do should be made public. Period. I understand that some things can not be talked about until after a change is made – and that is acceptable, but since this is a done deal, I see no reason to keep it a secret.