Lawrence adopts ‘more concrete’ ethics policy for city employees and commissioners

City leaders have approved a new ethics policy to replace a more general policy that was created in 1991.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission voted unanimously to approve a revised ethics policy that now explicitly applies to all city employees, elected officials and appointed officials, which includes advisory board members, and provides more specific language regarding what constitutes an ethics violation.
City Attorney Toni Wheeler told the commission that the goal of the new policy was to clarify whom the policy applies to and to “make the provisions more concrete and less aspirational.” Wheeler said the city consulted the ethics policies of many other communities in creating the new policy.