The Normal Town Council has a new code of ethics, and though it’s mostly symbolic, the resident who proposed the idea says it is needed in today’s political climate.
On Monday, the council unanimously adopted the code, proposed by the Ethics Committee of Bloomington-Normal earlier this spring.
Normal resident and former McLean County Board member Barbara Findley Stuart organized the committee. In February, she asked both the Normal Town Council and Bloomington City Council to adopt the code.
“I am very, very happy that everyone [on Normal council] voted for it,” she said after the vote.
“There are people who will not follow ethical kind of behavior when they’re in elected office. They will use things from the city or the county for their own benefit,” as well as not regularly attend meetings. “That is a disservice to themselves and the public that they serve,” said Findley Stuart.
She and fellow committee members Molly Munson and the Rev. Kent King-Nobles, spoke during the meeting’s public comments.
Council member Karyn Smith applauded the committee for pushing Normal to adopt the code. Findley Stuart spent eight years convincing her fellow county board members to develop an ethics code, back when she was a member, said Smith.
Council member Kathleen Lorenz voted for the code, but she thought it was important to not overstate what it would accomplish, in terms of public trust, noting the code offers no remedy for noncompliance.
“This is aspirational, it is not enforceable,” said Lorenz.
Among seven listed pledges in the code, council members agree to handle civic affairs responsibly, to uphold the spirit of the law and U.S. Constitution, and avoid conflicts of interest. The ethics code will be read aloud annually, signed by all members, and publicly displayed.
“It’s more of a personal pledge and reminder,” Mayor Chris Koos said after meeting. “It’s a kind of a little gut check. Personally — what you should do, a reminder of ethical behavior in terms of how you treat your fellow council members, how you protect private information,” and similar aspects of being an elected leader, he said.
About eight years ago, during a council retreat, leaders created and signed a similar document, Koos said. But that was more along the lines of how council members work with each other. “This is really more of a public statement,” he said of the code adopted Monday.
Findley Stuart told WGLT she’d grown concerned with President Donald Trump’s behavior on the national stage, and noted he has criminal convictions. Even though she’s long been retired, Findley Stuart wanted to do more than complain, so she acted, pushing for local officials to create codes of ethics, she said.
Council member Kevin McCarthy was absent Monday.
Vehicle barrier purchase
Also Monday, the council approved spending nearly $195,000 on a set of vehicle safety barriers, along with a trailer to transport them to community events.
“Some incidents have happened at public events across the country, where people have been killed,” Koos said. Normal had been using town vehicles to block intersections, as a safety prevention. But this marks an improvement, he said.
“These are more useful for that. It doesn’t lock down town equipment for a day, and it's actually better designed for crowd control,” he said.
Normal Police Chief Steve Petrilli told the council the 72 barrier units can be strung together, or staggered, allowing for adjustments as crowds enter or exit areas. “They’re very easy to disconnect and create pedestrian walk throughs,” he said.
In other business, the council:
- Tabled a vote on creating a new Uptown North TIF [tax increment financing] district. Koos said the delay is based on fine tuning some of the ordinance language, and he expects a vote in two weeks. A 24-acre area is proposed for the district.
- OK’d spending about $775,000 with J.G. Stewart Contractors, Inc. for the town’s 2026 sidewalk improvements — the 50/50 sidewalk & ADA ramps project.
