Newton Committee Advances City Council Code of Conduct on 6-1 Vote

NEWTON — November 19, 2025 — Newton's Programs and Services Committee voted 6-1 to send a proposed city council code of conduct to the full council, stripping out enforcement provisions but retaining a harassment prevention policy. Vice Chair Bill Humphrey, who co-drafted the document with Councilor John Oliver, argued the code was prompted in part by a council member who admitted to sexually harassing a colleague during a meeting and for which "no apology was ever made to the person affected." Councilor Lyall Baker abstained on the final vote, arguing the document lacked legal standing as neither an ordinance nor a rule and that a 2018 statement of best practices already covered much of the same ground. The committee voted 4-3 to strip enforcement sections — including provisions for mandatory post-incident conversations and public apology requests — with Chair Josh Krenzman saying he preferred a standing ethics body handle enforcement and would pursue that as a floor amendment. The committee also unanimously approved the appointment of retired physician Ellen Penso to the Council on Aging and voted 6-0 to create a gift account for the Department of Older Adult Services, capped at $1 million, to fund programming at the forthcoming Cooper Center for Active Living.