I remember reading ICMA’s The First-Time Administrator’s Handbook before I took the job as city manager of my hometown of Frankfort, Kentucky. Although I had worked in local government previously and had consulted with cities in the United States and in other countries, this was my first time being a city manager.

I recall reading the column, “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up,” which lists a number of challenging incidents—from elected officials getting arrested to inappropriate sexual conduct—which are true stories of events that occurred in various city administrators’ first year on the job. I think I was a little concerned but also amused. What I did not know then is that I could write and update that column now.

Five months into my tenure, a member of the governing body, in a closed-door executive session, was texting his business colleague during an interview for a new police chief. One of the four interviewed was the female assistant police chief. The governing body member was an attorney and was aware that communicating during a closed-door session may constitute misconduct. And he decided to text horrific, sexually explicit and derogatory comments about the female assistant police chief while she was being interviewed.

I won’t go into all the details about the content of the message and how I found out, but the city attorney and I did learn of these texts about three days later, which began a multi-month process of addressing the incident. We had planned on holding an executive session to discuss the hiring of the new police chief; however, we had to quickly change the nature of that executive session so we could share printouts of the texts with the governing body, along with an affidavit by the person who received them.

The remaining governing body members decided to pursue a public hearing on removal, per state law. The city had a code of ethics, but it mainly addressed financial misconduct, filing and investigation of complaints with the city’s board of ethics, and protections for employees reporting wrongdoing. There was nothing about personal conduct, sexual harassment, or targeting of employees.

The state law was also vague and stated that “any elected officer, in case of misconduct, incapacity, or willful neglect in the performance of the duties of his or her office, may be removed from office by a unanimous vote of the members of the legislative body exclusive of any member to be removed ….”

After many months and many meetings, the remaining governing body members unanimously approved of removing the commissioner from office after a testy and challenging public hearing. He appealed the governing body’s decision to the circuit court, and while the case was pending, he filed baseless ethics complaints with the city against me and the city attorney and numerous other motions in court, which all were easily dismissed.

As additional context, this member and another member of the governing body would often contact city staff about policy and other operational actions. The city attorney and I had several conversations with these two about their conduct and appropriate roles and responsibilities for the governing body, and requested that they not contact staff directly and instead speak to me. The staff interactions would subside a bit and then ramp up as they were looking to score political points.

These two governing body members also did not follow established norms and had used unbecoming language in meetings when people appeared before commission meetings, texted or emailed others often during official meetings, and/or would have frequent sidebar conversations during meetings.

I asked ICMA about codes of ethics and codes of conduct from other communities and ICMA shared several examples. I also conducted my own research to see what other communities did, and none seemed to address the needs and situation we had in Frankfort.

I remember re-reading the ICMA Code of Ethics and in particular, Tenet 3: “Demonstrate by word and action the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all public, professional, and personal relationships in order that the member may merit the trust and respect of the elected and appointed officials, employees, and the public.”

I knew we needed to revise our written policy for our elected officials and staff, especially to reflect changes in society, technology, and accepted norms. The existing policy was adopted in 1994, and a lot had changed in 30 years. Frankfort is a state capital where partisanship and divisiveness was on the rise, and it was easy to lob personal attacks as the standard way to disagree.

The city attorney and I discussed ideas and began to work on this issue. However, we had to put things aside as we had other more pressing issues to address during this tumultuous time.

Months later, the governing body member who was removed was re-elected, and afterward, the circuit court judge ruled that the city was “arbitrary and capricious” to have removed him. The judge stated that at worst he was being a jerk and at best it was a bad joke. He reinstated his missing pay for the months he was removed from office.

After the election and having spent six more months working with him and the other governing body member, I determined it was best for me to leave the city. After my departure, the city commission continued to have repeated incidents that violated norms and expected standards of conduct. The city attorney continued the work on addressing this with a renewed sense of urgency. Together with the new city manager, they drafted the “playbook,” a new ordinance governing rules of procedure and decorum for the board of commissioners. Key parts of this playbook include:

• Members shall refrain from abusive conduct, personal charges, or verbal attacks upon the character or motives of other members, officers, employees, board, commissions, committees, the public, or any person or entity appearing before the board of commissioners.

• Members shall respect and adhere to the city manager structure of Frankfort city government as provided in the state law and the city charter. This is a key provision that addresses in greater detail about not making one-on-one contact with any employees on policy matters without notification and involvement of the city manager.

It also goes in-depth about requesting research from staff. If research would require more than an hour of staff time, this effort should be on the commission agenda and responses shared with all governing body members. It also addressed the conduct of commissioners, including being respectful, as well as refraining from interrupting others or engaging in cross talk.

Additionally, it laid out the rules for the order of business for meetings to ensure a fair process for all and to mitigate the possibility that the meeting would be derailed by a sudden last-minute, unrelated request or demand by a commissioner. It also redressed a weakening of the city manager form of government that was passed in 2019. A previous mayor had advocated and won support for a change to an ordinance that allowed the mayor to set the agenda for city commission meetings, in consultation with the city manager. The new code revised that directive and reverted to the pre-2019 language, stating that the city manager sets the agenda, in consultation with the mayor.

Finally, it addressed the discipline of board members and how they enforce the rules they have adopted.

It has been almost two years since I left the city. And although I had regrets that I did not focus on code of conduct and ethics issues more, I am grateful and proud of the work that the current city leaders and staff have continued and accomplished.

The new code of conduct and decorum was adopted unanimously on May 19, 2025. With this adoption, the city of Frankfort is working toward ensuring a more ethical and professional approach to serve the best interests of the entire community and to enhance trust among elected leaders, city staff, and community members.

I could not have imagined (or believed it if it was in The First-Time Administrator’s Handbook!) that I would have to manage and experience such challenges. Having a good working relationship with the city attorney who shared a similar vision for a more ethical and well-governed community was key to getting the work started and her seeing it through to its successful completion. Frankfort is in a much better place for it. I know because I still choose to live there!

LAURA HAGG is the director of capacity development and governance at ICMA. She rejoined the ICMA staff in August 2023, having previously worked at ICMA from 2010 to 2015 on international programs to improve service delivery around the world.