AUBURN – Councilors may ask the city’s ethics panel to meet more often and stay familiar with their job.

That could have meant a more timely review this spring, and that would have made issues surrounding a vote for Great Falls parking garage bonds easier to take.

“The delay seemed to sabotage what may be a decent law,” Councilor Joe DeFilipp said. “It added to the perception that the city was not interested in getting this handled.”

Councilors met Monday with attorney George Isaacson to review the city’s ethics and conflict-of-interest ordinance. Isaacson helped draw up the ordinance 10 years ago. It creates a separate panel that reviews council and city board decisions for conflicts of interest.

The panel met for the first time this summer to review allegations of conflict on the part of Councilor Kelly Matzen.

Matzen, a local lawyer, was one of five city councilors who voted in February to sell $5 million in bonds to build a parking garage in Great Falls Plaza, near a planned Tom Platz development project.

Councilor Bob Mennealy challenged Matzen before the final vote on March 1. He argued that Matzen’s firm lists developer Pasquale Maiorino as an associate. Maiorino is also a partner of developer Platz.

The ethics panel was called in right away but didn’t discuss the matter until July. Member Earl Austin recused himself in March, saying he had a close relationship with Matzen. Member Paul Martz was then forced to quit in April because he also serves on the city’s Community Development Loan Review Commission. Chairman Peter Garcia then recused himself in June to seek a seat on the city’s Charter Commission.

“That probably ruined any timeline they might have had, because people kept walking away,” DeFilipp said.

Councilors voted on the bond issue in March, months before the ethics panel met to clear Matzen of conflicts.

“I think it should be addressed in some way that the committee meets more often, at least once a year, to stay familiar with the ordinance and what they’re doing,” DeFilipp said.