Thursday's BOA Agenda Includes Proposed Anti-Nepotism Ordinance, Ban on Elected Officials Gaining Contracts or Employment With City.

The Board of Aldermen will be meeting on Thursday at 7:00 pm in the Aldermanic Chambers of City Hall. The agenda has been posted online per the Open Meeting Law.

Two interesting pieces of legislation included in Thursday's agenda come from Ward 4 Alderman Tony LaFuente who is proposing a anti-nepotism ordinance and Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang who is interested in learning the Board's legal authority to enact an ordinance prohibiting former elected officials from gaining a contract or employment with the City.

LaFuente, through agenda item #27 (ID: 10355), is seeking to prevent the Mayor or members of the Board of Aldermen from appointing family members, boyfriends or girlfriends as an employee or officer. The legislation reads, "The Mayor or Board of Aldermen shall not appoint as an employee or officer, to receive any compensation for the City, any person who is a relative by blood or marriage within the second degree of the Mayor or any member of the Board of Aldermen or any person who is in a cohabitant relationship with the Mayor or any member of the Board of Aldermen. This shall not apply to any employee hired before the passage of this Ordinance.

No member of the Board of Aldermen shall vote on any matter involving a department or for a bond giving money to a department where an employee of that department is a relative within the second degree of that member of the Board of Aldermen or where the employee of that department is in a cohabitant relationship with that member of the Board of Aldermen."

Niedergang is looking to prohibit former elected officials from gaining contracts or employment with the City through agenda #36 (ID: 10365). The legislation reads, "That the City Solicitor report to this Board whether this Board has the legal authority to enact an ordinance that would prohibit elected officials from employment with or contracting with the City government for a specific period of time (for example, two years) following the termination of their service as an elected official."

The Board of Aldermen meetings are televised on channel 22 (comcast) or 13 (RCN), broadcast on both those channels throughout the week and streamed live online on the City's meeting portal.