Nerditorial: The Strange Case of Agenda Bill 2012-225

The agenda for the Whatcom County Council meeting on July 10, 2012 includes AB 2012-225.

Whatcom County Citizens Advisory Committee, Board, Commission, or Task Force Code of Conduct.

The Code is a five-page description of generally boilerplate code of conduct in any professional work place.

Except for a few unusual clauses, that is. Particularly near the end.

Here are a few selected clauses that have a peculiar ring to them:

General Conduct - Interaction with County Staff
...
...Committee appointment does not empower the committee or its individual members to supervise staff or make final decisions, unless authorized by State law or the group's enabling ordinance.
...
...The staff facilitators do not work "for" or "at the direction of" the committee...
...
Committee members will strive to appreciate differences in approach and point of view, whether from each other, the community, the County Council, or County staff...
...
Committee members will participate in the group's discussions and work assignments without domination the discussion or activity of the committee.
...

Those clauses don't have the generic ring of any given code of conduct in any given organization. They sound rather specific, and pointed, and motivated by actual events... kind of like a Lifetime movie of the week.

I wonder what prompted this completely out of the blue step-child of a resolution. The originator of the ordinance is "County Council" so it is not clear from reading the agenda bill itself which members of council deemed this important enough to place on an agenda.

Perhaps someone could ask the Council about this at the July 10 meeting in Open Session.

I would ask myself, but I have already got a full plate prepared for an entirely different topic of interest.