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- Vineyard City Council unanimously adopted its first official code of conduct Wednesday.
- The code outlines ethical standards, responsibilities and protocols for city officials.
- Councilman Jacob Holdaway initially opposed, citing concerns, but later supported the revised document.
VINEYARD — After more than two months of deliberating details, the city is adopting a code of conduct for elected and appointed officials.
The Vineyard Code of Conduct's purpose is to establish behavioral and ethical expectations of city officials who hold positions of trust and responsibility. The code of conduct applies to all members of the City Council, boards, committees and commissions in Vineyard and will be included in council and board orientations and in annual training.
The code of conduct dictates officials' general responsibilities, legal and ethical standards, meeting protocols and applicable consequences for violations. The document also outlines the officials' responsibility to represent themselves accurately to the public by distinguishing between their actions as a public official and their actions as a private citizen.
The council unanimously passed a resolution to adopt the code of conduct during Wednesday's City Council meeting, but getting to that point was rocky.
The document was first presented at the special City Council meeting on Jan. 14 by city attorney Jayme Blakesley at the request of Mayor Julie Fullmer. State code requires cities to adopt rules of order and procedure, Blakesley said.
"The thought was it's probably time to put into place a formal code of conduct that spells out line by line and lists out what the expectations are in the city of both the City Council and other boards, commissions, committees for ethical behavior and civil discourse," Blakesley said.
Fullmer said she added the code of conduct to the council agenda to ensure all departments are trained and functioning properly.
"This is something we should be able to take on and assure our residents that we are professional and transparent and ethical. I feel like anybody that would sign that is displaying good leadership," she said.
The mayor assured the council she wanted everyone to be comfortable with the document and to aid in modifying it so it meets the city's needs. The council for the most part voiced approval for having a document like this, but some expressed concern over vague language on the violations.
The code of conduct received intense scrutiny from Councilman Jacob Holdaway, who said it was concerning he had only learned about it a day before the meeting and that the council wasn't involved in the drafting of it. Holdaway said he wanted more time to go through the document as personal attacks, bullying and other items are too "subjective" to define in a code of conduct.
Holdaway has been a staunch opponent of the mayor since running for council on the claim that she and the City Council were not being transparent. He has gotten into multiple heated discussions with the mayor in public meetings, many of which were related to costly trips and economic development partnerships.
Since being in office, Holdaway has posted several adversarial posts on his Facebook page, calling the mayor "deceptive," claiming the mayor is blocking him from putting things on the agenda and saying the code of conduct was written to silence citizens.
In a response to some allegations in December, the mayor said Holdaway "has consistently engaged in bullying, spreading inaccurate information and obstructing progress in Vineyard."
At the end of the Jan. 14 meeting, Fullmer decided to create a subcommittee of Holdaway and Councilman Brett Clawson to tackle adjusting the conduct document. Over the following weeks, the councilmen met with citizens and city staff to discuss ideas and changes.
In a council meeting on Feb. 12, Clawson said the committee was experiencing great progress to ensure nothing in the code could be weaponized against anybody and that it promotes efficient, well-behaved employees. A vote on adopting the code, however, was continued in that meeting and the following meeting due to the entire council not being present.
Holdaway tried to postpone a vote on the code of conduct again Wednesday, citing information on closed meetings and the sharing of documents needed to be fixed because of information he learned from a letter he got from the Office of the State Auditor.
"With the hours and hours I've spent with that document ... it's unclear to me what you're referencing," Blakesley said in response, adding that the content of the letter doesn't have any effect on the code of conduct.
Clawson wished to move forward with a vote on the document, saying he was proud of the two months' of work that had gone into it. The resolution also dictates the code of conduct be adopted as bylaws instead of city code, which provides the city flexibility while learning how to operate with it and allowing for it to be reevaluated by the council at any time, he added.
After looking at other city codes, this code of conduct is "much more thoughtful than anyone else in Utah and that is something I think we should be proud of," Clawson said.
Holdaway ultimately agreed, saying the document is "a thousand times better from where we started" and seconded the motion to adopt the code which was then passed unanimously.
