Ethics Board Upholds Complaints Against Bonser, Davis

Councilwoman Adrian Bonser and Mayor Mike Davis still have some ethical business to deal with.

After a four-hour meeting Tuesday, the city ethics board didn't dismiss that Bonser may have leaked information from a February city executive session and that Davis breached the city's code by asking her to resign.

The board did dismiss Bonser's complaint, which came about after she was named in the leak, that the city council held an unlawful executive session Feb. 3. The complaint named the entire city council besides Bonser and also former City Attorney Brian Anderson and City Manager Warren Hutmacher.

None of it was done unanimously. In the quasi-legal proceedings, issues such as jurisdiction, what can be discussed in closed sessions and rules of evidence have all been discussed.

The board voted 3-2 not to dismiss the complaint against Bonser. Janet Webb and Bill Blaske dissented.

"I had some problems with the Wilson report, frankly," Blaske said, referring to the investigation by Bob Wilson that named Bonser as a source of the leak.

The board voted 4-1 to dismiss the claims against the city council, Anderson and Hutmacher, but to keep the complaint that the mayor may have breached ethics by asking Bonser to resign, which he said at the meeting he did ask.

Blaske was the dissenter.

The board also agreed to send the matter to "alternative resolution dispute" instead of scheduling hearings on the spot. The board did agree to hold hearings on the matters if the resolution was not successsful.

The hearing was to be scheduled, according to the city's ethics rules, no more than 30 days out. That clock will start on Monday.