There were no conflicts of interest.
That’s the ruling by the Salisbury city Ethics Commission in complaints leveled against almost all of the Council members including its top leadership as well as its legal counsel.
The opinions were written by Worcester County Attorney Sonny Bloxom who was appointed to hear the complaints against Council President Terry Cohen, Council Vice President Debbie Campbell council members Shanie Shields and Tim Spies as well as City Attorney Mark Tilghman.
The Salisbury Daily Timesreports the commission ruled that none of the accused, their families or affiliated businesses had experienced any direct financial impact as result of their actions.
In the complaints filed by former Council President Mike Dunn he had argued that the hiring of City Attorney Tilghman constituted a conflict of interest because of his closeness and political support of the top leadership of the council.
Dunn is also the interim manager of Delmarva Public Radio.
In the case of Council member Spies his participation in the oversight of the new city attorney and rental inspections was questioned by Shields while he was also subject to legal action by the city over a housing issue.
Spies has hired outside counsel so that the City Attorney would not be involved in the case and he skipped the city appeals process going directly to Circuit Court.
Meanwhile, Spies had alleged Shields had violated the ethics code by voting for zoning text amendment that he said directly benefits her landlord.
The commission ruled that the zoning amendment was not specific to Shields.
