The Ethics Board was inactive? Not quite.

Last month, the Long Beach City Council appointed eight new members to the Board of Ethics, a panel the council claimed was inactive for the past six years. That is simply inaccurate.

On April 7, 2004, the Long Beach City Council at the time — James Hennessy, Thomas Sofield Jr., Mona Goodman, Dennis Kelly and Leonard Remo — appointed eight members to the Ethics Board: Thomas Evrard, Asia Garcia, Theodore Hommel, Hector Maldonado, the Rev. Carleton Mobley, Louis Newman, Jane Novorro and me. I was elected chairman.

According to the city charter, the Board of Ethics serves at the pleasure of the City Council and offers advisory opinions on General Municipal Law, including Section 18 Code of Ethics. Under Section 18, the Ethics Board sets its own rules and regulations as to its form and procedures. Under Subdivision 7 Penalties, anyone who intentionally violates any provision of law or the Code of Ethics may be fined, suspended or removed from office or employment.

The Board of Ethics was referred cases by the city’s corporation counsel to offer opinions and advice on governmental, civil and criminal matters as well as ethical issues. Additionally, commissioners and city employees sometimes sought advice on potential conflicts of interest.

While the former board did not issue any written opinions over the past eight years, it was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. An example of a case brought to my attention was an application for a building permit by the city’s building commissioner, who was building a home in Long Beach and wanted to use a specific builder.

Corporation Counsel Corey Klein and I reviewed the details of the application and determined that the commissioner could hire a builder of his choosing as long as the commissioner did not review or rule on the building application and paid full value for the builder’s services.

When the matter was investigated by the Long Beach Police Department, the investigation determined that the application had been properly handled.