The city has a "robust" ethics ordinance that is mandated by the state, according to City Attorney Jay Gullo. Taneytown’s regulations have been developed over time and like any municipal ethics ordinance, it has to be approved by the Maryland State Ethics Commission.

In years past, the city for all intents and purposes adopted the state code on ethics, tweaking them to cover disclosures not necessarily required by the state. The city’s latest ethics ordinance was approved approximately ten years ago. This year the state legislature passed changes to the state code "that are not necessarily applicable to us," Gullo said, but an update to the city code was overdue.

The updates to the ethics ordinance are intricate, "none of them seem to really apply to anything we’ve ever dealt with," he said, with the most complicated changes dealing with owning varying percentage pieces of businesses. These issues are found primarily in larger towns and cities, according to Gullo.

Revisions incorporated into the updated city ethics code include provisions governing the lobbying of elected officials and the lobbying by elected officials. "We don’t have a lobbyist practicing in front of us so it's kind of a moot point, but it needs to go in there," Gullo said. Despite the city not having lobbyists practicing, it is now a required aspect and there is not much room for choice on the city’s part, he said.

Other changes included housekeeping aspects regarding acceptance of gifts. Updated language now prohibits a town employee or elected official from accepting gifts from an association acting on behalf of another that is engaged only in representing counties or municipal corporations, such as the Maryland Association of Counties or the Maryland Municipal League. These organizations are educational and offer training but also have a legislature committee and have a lobbying function. Most changes are relatively straightforward, said Gullo, including prohibition against retaliation against an employee for reporting an ethics violation.

The "draft" ordinance will be sent to the state ethics commission for official review and action before returning to Taneytown Council for adoption potentially in December. The city’s ethics commission will then act and make any necessary changes to the city’s policies by January to implement the changes, stated Gullo.

According to Gullo, local governments’ ethics laws must be equivalent to or exceed the requirements of State law with respect to conflict-of-interest provisions and financial disclosure provisions.

While the State Ethics Commission may exempt certain small municipalities from the requirement to enact ethics laws, or certain parts of ethics laws, for their jurisdictions. Taneytown is not on the exemption list, hence the need to adopt a local code.