By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

The town of Weare took a giant step toward having an enforceable ethics code on Monday, May 2, as the Weare Board of Selectmen approved four people to join the new ethics committee.

The newly formed committee, composed of community volunteers, will examine a code of ethics already adopted by the Weare Board of Selectmen in 2003, but that was never a ballot issue.

"It's basically been a piece of paper without teeth," said Weare Board of Selectmen Chairman Laura Buono. "There have been no steps to follow if someone were in violation of that code."

Buono said the committee's first job will be to prepare the code of ethics for the ballot next March.

Names of committee members have not yet been released.

Selectman Heleen Kurk said the code of ethics and subsequent ethics committee have been in part modeled like those currently active in Dunbarton. "I've spoken to several people in Dunbarton," she said. "I think they've had some problems, but it seems largely to serve them well."

None of Weare's current selectmen were serving when the notion to form an ethics code was introduced, but Town Administrator Robert Christensen said the code's inception likely wasn't born from any particular incident.

"I know it's been talked about for a couple of years," Christensen said. "But I think a lot of it just comes from the nature of town politics." Christensen added that an enforceable code of ethics could be a valuable asset to the town if considered "with time and due diligence," but said he's not sure it's absolutely necessary in Weare.

"I tend to think that our staff already strives to maintain a very high ethical standard," he said.