Under scrutiny because some of its members have hired relatives and accepted free parking, the Baltimore City Council will begin the process next week of studying a proposed overhaul of the city's ethics law.
The council is expected at its Monday meeting to schedule an Oct. 2 hearing on revisions to the law, which a draft report by the Board of Ethics describes as "obtusely written" in parts and barely changed since its enactment two decades ago.
Many council members have said that confusion with the law has led to their acceptance of some gifts and the hiring of family members to their staffs -- questionable practices revealed last month in an article in The Sun.
The city's Board of Ethics will discuss those practices Aug. 25 to begin determining if the elected officials violated the ethics law, officials said.
"There is a lot of confusion," President Sheila Dixon said yesterday. "It will be good to clean up the language and get things straight so we can get back to doing the business of the city."
Records show a majority of council members have hired relatives. They also have received complimentary passes from Arrow Parking, free entry to the Baltimore Zoo, and free tickets to movies at the Senator Theatre and events at 1st Mariner Arena.
"They [the Board of Ethics] should call each person in," said former state Sen. Julian L. Lapides, who recently left the city Board of Ethics to join the state's ethics commission. "Where they see an ethical violation, they should move forward and address it and see that it is corrected."
City ethics officials say they cannot comment until they have reviewed the hires and gifts.
Confusion exists because the ethics law does not directly prohibit nepotism, several council members said.
The law's conflicts-of-interest provision states that elected officials cannot make decisions that financially affect a "spouse, parent, minor child, brother, or sister." Council members control their budgets, so hiring assistants would fall under this provision, ethics officials said.
Ten of the council's 19 members have family members working on their payrolls. By the law's standards, council members can hire their children so long as they are older than 18. Hiring brothers, sisters, spouses and parents may not be allowed, officials said.
Three council members -- John L. Cain, Pamela V. Carter and Dixon --employ siblings. Carter and Dixon said they are waiting for the Board of Ethics to rule before making any staff decisions. Cain, who is on vacation, could not be reached yesterday.
