Coronado’s city attorney sought to tamp down a petition drive that calls for a code of ethics to govern the mayor and council members, arguing that California conflict-of-interest statutes and other laws already serve that purpose.
The petition, spearheaded by 2024 City Council candidate Christine Mott, has about 300 signatures as of March 10.
Mott notes that Coronado’s municipal ethics code does not restrict the city’s elected leaders because it only applies to personnel who report to the city manager.
“Of course, the mayor and you council members, you don’t report to the city manager, the city manager reports to you,” Mott said during a Feb. 4 City Council meeting. “Our ethics code doesn’t apply (to you).”
At the March 4 City Council meeting, City Attorney Johanna Canlas, responded with a sort of rebuttal.
Council member Carrie Anne Downey asked Canlas if there was anything the city employees are held to be responsible for that the City Council is not, to which the city attorney responded that there wasn’t.
“There has been some talk that there are no ethics and conflict-of-interest (codes) that applies to the council. That is false…” said Canlas. “To say that there are no ethics laws that apply is just false.”
The background
Mott originally communicated with the city about what she called an ethical issue in October 2024 during the election season when the previous mayor, Richard Bailey, sent out his election recommendations with a letterhead that resembled the city’s logo. She reported him for state violations as well.
She received a response from Tina Friend, the city manager, saying that the city did not have the jurisdiction to enforce state statutes Mott provided, and that the administrative procedure manual Mott cited only governed city employees under the control of Friend.
Since Bailey was the mayor and not a city employee answering to the city manager, he wasn’t governed by a Coronado ethical code.
Mott also found that in October 2022, another ethics complaint had been filed against Bailey regarding whether he violated certain administrative procedures.
A special counsel serving the city for election matters at the time concluded that municipal administrative procedures do not apply to members of the City Council. In addition, there are no enforcement provisions.
Bailey was thereby found to not be in violation, and the complaint was closed.
Recent developments
A few days before the March 4 City Council meeting, Coronado resident and past City Council candidate Laura Wilkinson Sinton submitted an op-ed to The Coronado News calling for an ethics code and ethics commission to be created on the island.
Local ethics codes and ethics commissions are the customary and truest guardrails in California cities. Coronado currently has neither where our elected officials are concerned.
Laura Wilkinson Sinton
“Local ethics codes and ethics commissions are the customary and truest guardrails in California cities. Coronado currently has neither where our elected officials are concerned,” Wilkinson Sinton wrote.
However, Canlas said something different on March 4.
“To say that there are no ethics laws that apply, is just false,” Canlas argued.
Coronado adheres to AB 1234, the city attorney said, referring to a statute that requires California cities to provide ethics training for elected officials regarding financial compensation.
Furthermore in 2023, a law known as the Levine Act was amended to apply existing state laws to local government agencies, including city councils. The act prohibits public officials from using their position to influence permits, licenses or other government action on behalf of parties who made campaign contributions of $500 or more in the previous 12 months.
There is no need to have an administrative policy when there’s state law that addresses it.
City Attorney Johanna Canlas
“There is no need to have an administrative policy when there’s state law that addresses it,” Canlas explained. “State law didn’t cover employees, that’s why organizations and public agencies like Coronado needed to have an administrative policy that applies similar requirements … to the elected and appointed officials.”
Is state law enough?
Mott and Wilkinson Sinton have argued that, although council members are subject to state laws governing conflicts of interest, those statutes aren’t good enough.
Wilkinson Sinton wrote that the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), which is tasked with overseeing local elected officials, moves too slowly.
The FPPC only updates conflicts from local officials once a year and, by then, it’s too late, Wilkinson Sinton asserted.
“State ethics laws look good in theory, but in practice the state doesn’t have the bandwidth to be a local watchdog as the last election showed. This is about trust in local government,” wrote Wilkinson Sinton.
In her petition, Mott said that there is a huge gap between state laws and reality in Coronado.
“What we’re trying to point out is … those state laws effectively become irrelevant for a variety of reasons,” Mott said.
Canlas added that California’s Political Reform Act outlines conflicts of interests for public officials. She also said Coronado is governed by Code 1090, a California provision that prohibits conflicts of interest in government contracts.
The city attorney also disputed claims that a local ethics code would be more compelling than the statutes, noting that the state laws provide harsher penalties for violations.
For example, she said, a willful violation of Code 1090 is punishable by jail time, a fine and disqualification from office, which are “consequences not available to general law cities like Coronado.”
Mott said California laws may apply to council members, but getting the state to enforce them locally is challenging.
“FPPC has to cover all of California. The district attorney is overwhelmed with cases,” Mott said. “While an ethics issue in Coronado is critical locally, it will unlikely get state attention unless egregious.”
Mott cited Bailey’s use of what appeared to be city letterhead in a campaign endorsement letter as an example.
“The conduct at issue would have been prohibited by any other Coronado employee,” Mott said.
Wilkinson Sinton also complained that the city attorney’s presentation on ethics was not clearly listed on agendas for the March 4 meeting. “It’s unfortunate that the agenda item did not mention ethics in it,” Wilkinson Sinton added. “Or we might have made arrangements to be there – and by we, I don’t mean just Christine. There’s a lot of people who are looking at this.”
“If the state of California’s ethics codes are so robust, why do several cities in California have their own city code of ethics that apply to their mayors and city councils, complete with an ethics commission to oversee and enforce those ethics codes?” Wilkinson Sinton asked.
