On June 25, 2009, Councilor John Eagleton filed a request for an ethics opinion with the City of Tulsa Ethics Advisory Committee. The request concerned the hiring of Mr. Chris Westcott as a police cadet, and whether those who hired Mr. Westcott violated the ethics code by knowingly hiring someone who, as the son of a city councilor, could not serve as a Tulsa police officer. (35 KB PDF). Here is an excerpt from the request:

It has come to my attention that City officials hired Mr. Chris Westcott knowing he was the son of City Councilor Rick Westcott. It has been stated this hiring was in violation of Title II, section 8-106 of the Oklahoma Statutes and Section 107 of the City of Tulsa's Personnel Policies and Procedures.

As such, I request the City of Tulsa's Ethics Advisory Committee provide an opinion on whether such a violation of state statute constitutes a violation of the City of Tulsa's Ethics Code. If so, what are the factors in determining when an individual would be in violation of the Code?

The City of Tulsa has spent thousands of dollars in his salary, training, and other expenditures when officials knew or should have known the expenditure was in violation of city policy and state law. As a result of this misconduct or neglect of duty, the City of Tulsa is now short another police officer because of it. It seems the Ethics Code should address this situation, if not, I welcome the Committee's recommendations to rectify the situation.