Latest news with #Joppa
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Joppa, ARL to host free pet wellness clinic Saturday morning
DES MOINES, Iowa — Joppa and the Animal Rescue League of Iowa are hosting a free wellness clinic for individuals aided by Joppa on Saturday. The clinic will run May 10 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the ARL Animal Services location, 1441 Harriet Street. Dogs and cats will have access to vaccinations and microchipping. Renaissance Faire starts Saturday at Sleepy Hollow The ARL says it hosts these events to ensure animals receive essential veterinary care, which helps keep pets with their families and out of the shelter. 'When we bring together the strengths of different organizations, we're able to maximize resources and extend our impact even more,' said Tom Colvin, ARL CEO. 'This clinic is about more than preventative pet care — it's about supporting the human-animal bond and keeping families together.' Saturday's clinic will be the second hosted by Joppa and the ARL. Nearly 50 pets were served during the first clinic in fall 2024. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Des Moines City Council split on proposal to relax its conflict of interest policy
Des Moines' elected leaders would no longer need to abstain from voting on issues concerning organizations and programs to which they donate or serve on boards under a proposed change to the city's conflict of interest policy. The proposed changes would revise the definition of "apparent conflict of interest" — a situation where financial or personal considerations could compromise a council member's judgment or objectivity — and add more exceptions to the policy. But the proposal, initially requested by four council members to be added to Monday's City Council meeting agenda, seems to have members split. The proposed changes come a few years after the City Council narrowly approved an ordinance that bans council members from voting on items involving their own financial interests and their immediate families, and from accessing programs with limited city funding. It also comes after questions have been raised over whether the City Council would have the votes to push forward Joppa's tiny home village to shelter the metro's chronically homeless. With Plan and Zoning's approval, Joppa's next stop is the Des Moines City Council, which must approve the rezoning. At least two council members have either donated to the organization or served on the organization's advisory board. More: Joppa buys land for its tiny home village. How will it help homeless people in Des Moines? Council member Mike Simonson served on the advisory committee for Joppa, and his former office, Simonson + Associates Architects, donated architectural services for the tiny homes' design plans. But Simonson said even if the policy changed, he likely wouldn't vote on the rezoning because of the possible conflict of interest. Meanwhile, council member Carl Voss and his wife donated $10,000 to help Joppa purchase the land for the village. Asked whether the proposed policy change was related to Joppa, Voss responded, "Some may say so." Neither the council members nor the City Council agenda documents indicate what prompted the policy changes. The council agenda also does not disclose which four council members brought the requested policy changes forward. Council member Joe Gatto, who voiced his opposition in a statement earlier Monday, said the proposal would lower the standard for determining conflicts of interest and make it easier for council members to vote on issues where their bias could be questioned. 'Our residents deserve transparency and integrity, not loopholes that allow conflicts of interest to be brushed aside,' Gatto wrote. 'At a time when people are losing faith in their elected officials, we should be reinforcing our ethical standards instead of weakening them.' Simonson said he would support the changes, saying that it strengthens the policy by clearing up some language that's too "loosey goosey" over council members' civic participation. "What particularly bothered me was as a City Council member, we as council people are highly engaged in our community. That's our nature and we're on boards," Simonson said. The change would signal that "council people should embrace the board that they're on, help as best as we can and not fear that we might be breaching the spirit or letter of the law by voting," Simonson added. On Monday, the council agreed to push back the item to the April 7 council meeting after Voss asked for it to be postponed. Council member Josh Mandelbaum also requested the city release a portion of a confidential memo from the legal department on the policy. The council will vote next meeting whether to unseal a portion of the document. The proposal combines the definitions of "apparent conflict of interest" and "appearance of conflict of interest" and firms up some of the wording. Currently, an apparent conflict of interest is when a "reasonable person" believes that a council member's judgment could be compromised. That would be changed to say that both apparent and appearance of conflict of interest are that a person "would have" — instead of "might have" — the impression that a council member's judgment would be significantly influenced by outside financial interest, even if there's no actual conflict of interest. The word "financial" is added to the proposed definition. It also adds the sentence, "The City Ethics Officer shall only reach the conclusion that an apparent conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest exists upon presentation of clear and convincing evidence." Additionally, the code would expand the list of exceptions to the conflict of interest policy. One exception explicitly allows a council member to vote on issues involving a charitable or governmental organization they sit on the board of — whether the City Council assigns them to that board or they choose to be on it — so long as they do not get paid for their service. The other exception would permit a council member to vote on matters related to a business entity that the council member or their family supports with donations or in-kind contributions. This is so long as the business is a charity or governmental organization and the council member and their immediate family are not board members or paid employees. Other already-existing exceptions include: Benefits or programs allowed city-wide to all other residents every year, such as tax abatement. Limited budget or one-time funded benefits don't apply. Small, occasional monetary amounts or gifts acceptable under the city code. A "commercially reasonable" loan or retail sale made in the ordinary course of business by an institution authorized by Iowa law. Competitively bid or awarded contracts with city-funded entities. The ordinance prohibits council members from voting, taking official actions or publicly discussing items in which they have "direct or indirect" financial interest, which include: A council member's property or financial interests. A council member's immediate family. Any person or entity employing or offering employment to a council member or their immediate family. Any business entity in which the council member or their immediate family has a legal or beneficial ownership interest of 5% or greater. Any person or business entity with whom a contractual relationship exists with the council member or their immediate family. It also says council members and their immediate family members are ineligible to apply for or accept certain financial assistance from city-funded programs. Council member Chris Coleman told the Register ahead of the meeting he would not be supporting the proposal. He agrees adjustments need to be made to the current policy, but said they should not be made for a specific project. Should the ordinance changes pass, current projects should proceed under the former policy, he added. "Without changing the effective date, and without addressing projects already in the City's pipeline, I will not support it tonight," Coleman wrote in a text message Monday. "I look forward to modernizing our conflict of interest policy because it's one of the most important things a city council does. But not this way." Also ahead of the meeting, council member Voss said he would be in support of the policy changes, noting that elected officials are expected to be civically engaged in their community. Voss serves on boards such as the Blank Park Zoo, the Des Moines Arts Festival and the Friends of Des Moines Parks. Mandelbaum echoed their comments, adding that the policy has been used selectively against council members in the past. He pointed to an instance when he said he felt pushed out of a vote in 2022 when the council voted to advance extensions of MidAmerican Energy's electric and natural gas franchise agreements for 13 years. Mandelbaum, who is an environmental lawyer at the Environmental Law & Policy Center, which joined a group called Clean Up MidAm that is focused on retiring MidAmerican's coal-fired power plants by 2030, recused himself from the discussion. "I don't want there to even be a claim of a conflict of interest," he said at the time. Mandelbaum said that the current ethics code interprets what's considered conflict of interest so broadly that the 'very things that the public choses to elect people on' become disqualifications under the existing ordinance even if there's no legal conflict of interest. 'The language is written broadly and it's been interpreted broadly such that there could be requirements for council to recuse themselves in all sorts of matters and in a way that I think is not ever intended by this code,' he said. Following Monday's meeting, Mayor Connie Boesen said the policy changes are not coming at the right time, adding that there were "issues that came up that people had on certain votes." It shouldn't be about "why we can't do something but should be forward-thinking," Boesen added, though she did not clarify what prompted the proposed changes. Council member Linda Westergaard did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Virginia Barreda is the Des Moines city government reporter for the Register. She can be reached at vbarreda@ Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines council split on relaxing its conflict of interest policy
