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Danville mayor questions ethics of city hall window dressing

July 27, 2010|By DAVID BROCK | dbrock@amnews.com

Mayor Hugh Coomer raised questions Monday night about a purchase the city made earlier this month from Commissioner Janet Hamner’s interior design business and whether the transaction violated the city’s code of ethics.

At issue was the purchase of window blinds for the new city hall and police department from Cottage Interiors that was approved at the commission’s July 12 meeting, which Coomer did not attend. The commission voted to approve the bill list that included the $3,689 payment, with Hamner abstaining.

During the “state of the city” portion of the agenda, Coomer read a portion of the ethics code about city employees and officials entering into contracts with the city and long portions about the responsibility of the city to avoid even the appearance of impropriety when entering into contracts.

Hamner said Monday that when asked for a quote, she provided one, but insisted that her business did not profit from the sale of the blinds.

“I did what I was asked to do,” Hamner said.

City Manager Paul Stansbury said he was the one who handled the process of getting quotes for and purchasing the blinds.

According to Stansbury, when the time came to purchase the blinds for the building, he looked in the phone book and requested quotes from three businesses. Because of the price of the items, the city was not required to go through an advertised bidding process.

“I think the way we went about this was in line with how you are supposed to handle purchases of this nature,” Stansbury said. “I looked at the purchasing regulations, which state that you should get three quotes, and I asked for written quotes from three local businesses. When we pulled the quotes, (Hamner’s) was substantially lower.”

Stansbury suggested that City Attorney Vince Pennington, who was not present for this portion of the meeting, be asked to review the actions of the city.

Coomer told the commission that he would not file ethics charges, but said an opinion should be sought from the city’s ethics committee.

“I really challenge the method in which this matter was handled,” Coomer said. “Perception is an important thing and you have to avoid actions that create the appearance of using the office for personal gain.”

Stansbury said the other quotes came from Wilcher Interiors and Martin-Durr-Caldwell, but that did not have access the amount of the quotes by press time.

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