With a couple of minor tweaks to the document on Monday, the Kalispell City Council adopted a policies and procedures manual all of its members seemed happy to support.

Randy Kenyon, who pushed for Kalispell to adopt a local ethics code, thanked other council members who voted to unanimously adopt the 10-page document.

“I’ve been working on this for almost a year now and I’m relatively pleased,” he said of the final product. “It’s important for council to make a statement to the public that ethics are important, that transparency is important, and for them to understand that we understand.”

The manual is meant to help orient new council members and serve as an ethics code, covering everything from Kalispell’s municipal powers and budgeting process to legal and ethical standards and council meeting and voting procedures.

It does not enact the level of disclosure required in some other cities and at the state level. As passed, it requires council members to file yearly statements listing their names, home addresses, current employers and any boards on which they serve.

Kenyon and Wayne Saverud tried to put back in a requirement that council members disclose any property in the city in which they have an ownership interest. That motion failed 5-2, opposed by Mayor Tammi Fisher, Tim Kluesner, Bob Hafferman, Jeff Zauner and Jim Atkinson.

Arguments against the motion varied.

Hafferman noted it would not cover property owned by a spouse. Fisher added that people could easily switch property over to a spouse’s name to avoid the disclosure before running for office.

And while property ownership is a matter of public record, requiring council members to disclose it could stigmatize those who rent or don’t own property, Kluesner said, echoing a concern for the unemployed he raised at a prior work session about requiring the disclosure of employers.

Other removed disclosure requirements would have forced council members to disclose businesses and other professional entities in which they hold an ownership interest; past or present employers from whom they are receiving benefits; and entities for which they are officers, directors or registered agents.

Local attorney Jim Cossitt said the document’s appearance of impropriety disclosure policies are voluntary and its forced disclosure statement requirements are lacking and leave a gaping hole. “Even though lacking in some respects, the City Council is to be applauded for a good start on a functioning ethics code,” he said in written comments to the council.

Hafferman and others were opposed to turning the manual into a regulatory document. “We don’t need another government document to try to snoop into people’s private business,” Hafferman said. “Let’s leave this as a good document for reference. Not make a document to try to hang somebody. The voters can do that.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.