Dodge City, a town with no interest ?

Currently, a request for a legal ruling on which city committee members of Dodge City are covered by the conflict of interest ordinances is slowly moving through the city attorney's office (or actually, a hired city legal advisor office) -- so it might be useful to first review the current laws -- laws that right now seem to apply to no one at all. Here's the Dodge City laws that should apply -- but, we've been told -- don't since "appointive city official or employee, whether paid or unpaid" was not a term that was defined (and I'm still waiting for a list of city employees that are not paid -- )

Dodge City Municipal Code

(e) Conflict of Interest - No elected or appointive city official or employee, whether paid or unpaid, shall engage in any business or transaction or shall have a financial or other personal interest, direct or indirect, which is incompatible with the proper discharge of his or her duties in the public interest or would tend to impair his or her independence of judgment or action in the performance of his or her official duties. Personal as distinguished from financial interest includes an interest arising from blood or marriage relationships or close business or political association. Specific conflicts of interest are enumerated below
for the guidance of officials and employees:

(1) Incompatible Employment - No elected or appointive city official or employee shall engage in or accept private employment or render services for private interests when such employment or service is incompatible with the proper discharge of his or her official duties or would tend to impair his or her independence of judgment or action in the performance of his or her official duties.

(2) Disclosure of Confidential Information -
No elected or appointive city official or employee, shall, without proper legal authorization, disclose confidential information concerning the property, government or affairs of the city. Nor shall he or she use such information to advance the financial or other private interest of himself, herself or others.

So, the question being asked the City Attorney now is if these laws apply to ANY city committee members at all. Since a couple of the Dodge City commissioners talked much about their ethics during the election, seems to me that if no Dodge City conflict of interest laws apply to anyone, there's not much to talk about concerning ethics in Dodge.

You'll be informed as soon as that nice outside paid lawyer lets us know. Until then, guess that Dodge City has no interests to have conflicts over? Or just no laws concerning what, in most places, would be illegal involvement of appointed city officials making money off of your tax dollars -- and getting to make decisions for their own personal financial gain on how to spend those dollars.

Waiting too, Uncle George