Ethics commission to hear Frasier complaint

The city’s Ethics Review Commission is scheduled to consider an ethics complaint against retired Austin Police Monitor Margo Frasier at its next meeting on Aug. 9. The chief investigator for the Office of City Auditor filed a complaint against Frasier in April, alleging that she used her city computer to work on her outside consulting jobs. Assistant City Attorney Cindy Tom said Wednesday that the commission had tried to schedule a hearing on the Frasier complaint earlier, but could not do so because of a conflict with Frasier’s attorney’s schedule. So, the commission meetings for both June and July were canceled. Since then, auditors have filed several more complaints, including one against Isabel Lopez-Aguilar, a member of the Hispanic/Latino Quality of Life Resource Advisory Commission and program coordinator at the Latino HealthCare Forum. That complaint alleged “that Lopez–Aguilar, in her capacity as a commissioner … appears to have participated in a vote on an agenda item that affected a nonprofit entity … in which (she) appears to have a substantial interest.” The commission is scheduled to hear that complaint on Aug. 9 also. Tom said the commission is tentatively scheduled to consider two other complaints. One is against former Austin Energy employee Stefan Sasko, who made decisions regarding Austin Energy contractor Pike Electric, even though he had two brothers working for the contractor. The other is against Clifford Gillard, a member of the African-American Resource Advisory Commission. The complaint states that Gillard initiated consideration of a funding proposal and participated in evaluating the proposal for the nonprofit Capitol View Arts. Gillard founded the organization and serves on the board of directors. In both instances, Nathan Wiebe, chief investigator for the auditor’s office, alleged a likely conflict of interest.