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Hard-line nepotism rule needs softening: panel

Staff photo by Clay Schuldt The city’s Charter Commission is recommending a change in the nepotism code to allow relatives of elected officials to remain in city employment.

NEW ULM — City employees will no longer be fired if a relative is elected mayor or councilor.

Section 24 of the city’s Home Rule Charter and Municipal Code prohibits city employment of immediate family members of elected officials. The anti-nepotism language has been in the charter since 1973, but few city officials were aware of the language until 2020.

Since then, three incidents forced individuals to resign or not be considered for a position because of a family connection working with the city.

Last month, the city convened the Charter Commission to look into potential changes to the charter. There was concern that the provision punished potential city employees because of the family relation, but it did little to prevent unfair treatment in the workplace.

Wednesday the commission made a formal recommendation to change the language of the charter. The new language would no longer prohibit relatives of elected officials from working for the city, but added language saying the mayor or city council could not “influence or attempt to influence the hiring, transfer, suspension, promotion, discharge, reward, discipline or the adjustment of grievance of a related person.”

The new provision went on to define “related persons” to include parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece or first cousin.

It also includes relations by marriage or domestic partner such as husband, wife, stepparent, stepchild, stepbrother, stepsister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece.

Divorce or the death of a spouse would terminate a significant familial relationship by marriage.

City Attorney Roger Hippert said the change to Section 24 prevents a city employee from losing their job and clarifies that elected officials cannot take actions to impact a relative. As an example, if the council had to vote on an issue that impacted an employee they were related to, councilors would be expected to recuse themselves from the vote. The change would also prevent an elected official from putting pressure on the city manager or a department head to hire or fire a relation.

The commission acknowledge the change to the clause would not resolve all conflicts of interests in the city government, but it establishes expectations for elected officials.

We’re not going to be able to legislate specifically everything,” Commissioner Linda Heine said. “The main thing to me was I was not comfortable continuing to have a provision that says someone is going to get fired if they are a person in a relationship.”

The commission had additional concerns if there should be a consequence for an elected official who does attempt to influence a relative’s position with the city. The commission is continuing to look into establishing a code of ethics in the charter to further detail how elected officials should conduct themselves during conflicts of interest.

No official action was taken on a code of ethics during Wednesday’s meeting, with the commission choosing to table it for a future meeting.

The changes to the nepotism clause were unanimously recommended by the commission. This recommended change will come before the City Council along with other changes and additions recommended by the charter commission.

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