At last week’s meeting of the Bloomington city council’s rules committee, Isabel Piedmont-Smith said at one point to her colleagues, “A cup of coffee? Come on, I don’t care!”

The specific question of whether councilmembers should allow someone to buy them a cup of coffee was not on the committee’s agenda.

But the issue arose as they were sorting through the contents of the city’s employee manual.

Chair of the committee, Steve Volan, said the manual requires city employees to report any gratuities, courtesies and prizes, like meals and beverages to the city’s ethics officer—if they receive such items during the course of normal working hours.

For the committee, Volan said, that meant a decision about whether councilmembers should report their receipt of courtesies, like cups of coffee. And if councilmembers are supposed to report the courtesies, to whom should they be reported? Continue reading “City council committee pores over coffee rules, grounds its work on city employee manual” →