City Council Minutes 1993 04 20 - Laserfiche WebLink

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VOLUNTEER - RANDY CARNIVAL Mayer took strong exception to what he felt Councilman Lathrop was doing. He stated that when Council was presented with a change to the Ethics Ordinance, that the City had worked on for 18 months, at 11:30 p.m. at the end of the last Council meeting, with just one (1) person present in the audience, he took great exception to that. He stated that there is no problem with Mr. Carnival continuing as a coach of the Louisville swim team on a volunteer basis. He felt amending the ordinance was completely unnecessary. He stated that ethics are important and the ordinance shouldn't be changed on a whim. He stated that Louisville had the strictest ordinance in the State. He recognized the many fine things that Mr. Carnival had done with the swim team and felt that there was nothing to prevent him from continuing in that capacity. Sisk gave some history as to what had transpired. He stated that Mr. Carnival served on the Council during the time that the ordinance was being considered. The Ethics Ordinance was adopted in July of 1992, at which time Mr. Carnival was still acting as a swimming coach. His appointment was based upon a year to year basis. The ordinance stated that no Councilperson could be an employee of the City for two (2) years after leaving their Council position, which was for the purpose of preventing that person from using their influence unduly. He stated that the Ethics Ordinance was not set up to exclude Randy Carnival from acting as swim coach. He explained that Mr. Carnival could still continue to volunteer as a swim coach for one (1) more year and, then be paid after that year, to comply with the Ethics Ordinance. He stated that people who think Mr. Carnival can not act as a volunteer coach for that one (1) year period are totally wrong and Sisk took violent exception to that kind of thinking. Howard: I don't understand why a large group of the fine citizens of the City of Louisville were called out tonight on a issue that is really a non- issue. There was never, never a time when Mr. Carnival was not allowed to be swim team coach, regardless of what he said. The law clearly states that to be a swim team coach, he can volunteer his time. You just heard the City Administrator clearly say that we handle the insurance for many, many volunteers, so that's not an issue. The issue that I see is that it appears to me that, if, as it was stated in one of the local papers, money is not the problem, then we're all in concurrence. If money is not 5