There is supposed to be a vote coming up at the Board of Commissioners meetings on the long dormant ethics commission plan for the county's Board of Commissioners.
BOC Chairman Richard Oden will be presenting his previously stated plan, which involves having a member from each of the two major local political parties on the ethics commission. This is nothing but a political maneuver by the Chairman. We doubt whether this plan, which has been reported on in past issues, would do much to provide an avenue for citizens to voice any ethics concerns they might have involving county employees.
BOC commissioner Janice Van Ness is proposing a plan that involves including a member from the business community on the commission.
We support Van Ness's plan. The swing vote on both plans is BOC commissioner Oz Nesbit, and we urge the commissioner to vote for the plan that takes partisan politics out of the ethics commission.
Van Ness' plan will insure that the community controls the ethics committee, not political hacks.